RanmaPapa, ShampooMama
by ShadoeFox
Summary: Ranma finds a girl, trapped in the Nekoken...and Shampoo was one of the cats! What do you do, when you find someone in worse shape then you?
1. What in the?

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 or anything else anime related. Only the characters and story is mine, and even then it's debatable. 

Further Note: Yes I know I need to work on Kingdom Comes Again, but I've forgotten where I was on that. I'll get something out soon, I hope.

And yet another note: Yes, for those who have read Moon Cats one, two, or three, I like cats. Is that so wrong?

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Prologue

Ranma groaned, and rubbed his eyes, putting the book he had been reading on the grass. His blue eyes felt the strain of his unusually long study session. As a bonus, however, no one had attacked, or attempted to glomp, him in hours and he was actually beginning to understand the study material.

The book, _Fundamentals of Human Psychology_, was for one of the college courses he had his freshman year. Everyone had been surprised when he decided to go to college, but his mother had been thrilled. He didn't admit to anyone that part of the reason he chose to pursue a higher education was to avoid the fiancee issue for a few more years. 

His chosen major, was Physical Education, but Nabiki had suggested, sarcastically, that he minor in psychology "since he draws nuts, anyway." Her joke had actually made Ranma think, and he had taken her tongue in cheek advice. 

Stretching again, me muttered "I might as well work out for a while, since it's quiet."

"Meow..."

He froze, half risen from the ground. The cursed martial artists slowly turned his head, looking for the monster stalking him so he knew which way to run.

"Meow..."

And he froze again when his eyes locked with the green eyes of the creature, which was perched on a tree limb above his head. The fear turned to surprise.

The young girl meowed again, before pouncing.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Shampoo-Neko crawled out of the pit, finally dragging the bedraggled kitten she was carrying behind her. She winced in pain as she was forced to put weight on her right foreleg, the bite wound burning hotly with the added pressure. 

The small kitten she carried in her mouth mewed, it's own tiny body also covered in wounds in spite of Shampoo's best efforts. That worried the pink cat-girl since she was sure one of the cats in the pit was rabid.

The mess Shampoo found herself in started the day before. She had been returning to the Nekohatten after a trip to visit family in China. The return trip had been unusually quick so she was a couple of days early. She was walking home planning to surprise her Great Grandmother when a rainstorm had come out of no where and activated her curse.

That wouldn't have been a big deal except a skinny man in a black gi had grabbed her before she could find her self hot water water and had carried her off to a pit. The pit was filled with cats, most of them starved and half crazy. She knocked the two whom attempted to bother her aside, planning to hide in a corner until she had a chance to escape, when she noticed the smell of blood.

Her eyes turned toward the coppery smell, only to watch in horror as a group of toms killed calico, and attacked the kittens she had been trying to protect.

A few short moments later the toms were themselves bleeding, and backing away from the pink cat, who was guarding the last kitten, her attacks barely coming in time to save her.

Over the next twelve hours Shampoo was forced to stand a constant vigil. The kitten, who was fortunately eating solid food, happily ate the worms Shampoo knew to dig for while the other cats, with the dulled instincts of domestic pets and their lack of human intelligence, went on starving.

Then, what Shampoo had been afraid of happening, happened. The pits wooden cover opened long enough for a screaming young girl to be dropped into the pit. She was wrapped in sausages, just like Ranma had described to her in the past, and the cats attacked almost before she hit the ground.

Shampoo, desperate to help the screaming girl, jumped into the chaos, and slashed the ropes tying the fish to her, the girls own flailing tossing the bait away. For her troubles, Shampoo took several minor wounds, but accepted them.

The pink cat had returned to the kitten, picking it up by the scruff intending to escape with it when the sadistic moron opened the pit to get the girl. Unfortunately the toms had gotten brave, and too little fish, and she was busy fighting them off to escape that first chance.

The second time found the girl coated with fish oil and sardines. While most of the cats went after the fish when she again clawed the twine, some didn't forcing Shampoo to battle any who went for the girl's face. Again shortly after the Chaos died down she had to fight the damn toms again. This time she suffered a fresh bite wound.

The third time the girl was dropped in Shampoo had almost slipped into a stuporous sleep around the kitten, exhaustion of almost two straight days awake catching up to her. She snapped to awareness just in time to hear the yowl pour out of the angered, neko-ken possessed girl.

Shampoo forced the kitten into a corner of the pit, making them as small as possible while the girl killed the aggressive, hungry cats around them. The girl finally broke free of the pit and left Shampoo and her kitten as the only survivors. 

'I have to get help.' Shampoo thought to herself. She recognized the area she was in, woods just outside of Nerima, and turned to try and get to Dr. Tofu's. She collapsed after only fifty meters. 'Damn it!'

"Shampoo? Is that you? What the hell happened?" The voice, from behind her, caused her to turn her head. Ryoga, his pack over his shoulders, was crouching down looking at her.

"Oh man your hurt bad!" The lost boy said, lifting her and the kitten she was still holding off the ground. "What the... Who is this?"

"Meow!"

"Oh yeah, you can't talk." Ryoga started running in the direction he thought Nerima was. Okay Shampoo, I'll get you both to Dr. Tofu so don't you...OW!"

Shampoo had just bitten him, though she hadn't (And frankly didn't think she could) broken the skin. She yowled and wildly gestured with her mostly uninjured tail in the opposite direction.

"Oh, the other way...Right!"

Shampoo sighed as he turned towards the city. 'At least he can follow visual cues... but I don't know if I can keep giving them.' Her vision was already graying, but she fought to stay awake and aware.

________________________________________________________________________________

"This is very weird." Ranma muttered leaning against the same tree he had been studying under. The girl trapped in the Neko-ken lay on his lap, seemingly asleep but Ranma hadn't risked moving yet.

The girl had jumped from her tree limb straight at him, causing him to fall in panic. She landed gracefully in his lap and had curled up, apparently intending to sleep. That was fifteen minutes ago.

Over that time Ranma had taken the chance to look over the girls multiple injuries. The hundreds of scratches covering her bare skin were all too familiar to him, the marks of over a dozen cats attacking. Almost more disturbing to the pigtailed boy were the even dozen deep bruises scattered over her body, some visible on her back through the tattered mess of a gray gi. Ranma was a veteran of hundreds of such bruises and the sickly green color of some of them told him she wasn't moving well when she was tossed into the pit.

"Somehow..." Ranma muttered "you managed to find a trainer worse them the old man!" Even Genma had made sure he was in relatively good physical health before trying the Neko-ken.

Genma had also had topical antibiotics handy to prevent infections, which her teacher hadn't bothered to do either as the angry red skin around the older looking claw marks attested. Carefully Ranma tried lifting the girl, smiling when she stayed asleep.

"Okay, who ever you are, Doc Tofu can help ya out." He muttered, and started running.

AN: Yes, I'm giving the girl a father worse then Genma. Yes this fic is going to have some VERY dark bits.... But I promise not all will be pain and fear. I swear it (Cause I'd get depressed, and don't wanna Shi Shi Hokodan my computer.)


	2. Doctor!

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter One

"Yo doc, I need help here!" Ranma yelled, sliding the door to Tofu's clinic open with a foot. He quickly stepped in and was relieved to find no waiting patients. 

"Ranma? What's wrong?" The longhaired, older man stepped out of the office he did paperwork in, and paused when he saw Ranma's burden. "I see, come on."

Quickly Ranma was led into one of the doctor's examination rooms where he set the injured girl on an exam table. Tofu had meanwhile been preparing a tray with both topical and injectible antibiotics. "Who is this girl, Ranma?"

"I don't know, she pounced on me from a tree limb outta no where!" Ranma paused, looking at the Doctor. "She was caught in the Neko-Ken, doc."

"Are you all right?" Tofu asked. While Ranma wasn't showing the classic signs one of his own victims would be displaying, he knew the pigtailed boy often tried to hide injuries.

"Just hurt my pride, getting pounced by a ten-year-old. She curled up in my lap and went to sleep like I keep doing to Akane, Ukyo, and Ka...that one other person."

"I wonder why?" Tofu shrugged. "Any sign of a parent?"

"Nope, and I ain't real surprised. Pop was out for a day when I first learned it!" Ranma gestured. "And whoever did this to her was WAY worse then toe old man ever was! They might be dead."

Tofu paused, vaguely horrified that Ranma considered what happened to this girl so much worse then his own experience. The good-hearted doctor had honestly considered filing a complaint with the Child Welfare Office when he first heard Ranma's own Neko-ken story. He only held back because of Ranma's age and his healthy, in Tofu's opinion, disrespect for his father.

"Well, for the record I consider her injuries potentially life threatening so I'm treating her without permission."

"Works for me. If anyone complains tell them I threatened ya."

Tofu, with Ranma's slightly embarrassed help, removed the girls tattered and blood soaked gi and proceeded to clean out the huge number of scratches and gashes. Tofu was both relived and concerned when the girl didn't awaken, knowing full well several of the injuries, as well of the shot, had to hurt when he worked on them.

While working he also mentally catalogued the various bruises, his Ki attuned senses telling him about the two cracked ribs and several dozen old, healed broken bones throughout her young and malnourished body. His mind, rebelling at the small horror of the girl's pain, touched on the only bit of humor he could fashion as a defense mechanism. "Your SURE she's not another fiancee?"

"Geesh, bite your tongue, Doc."

Tofu chuckled, in spite of him self, and was soon finished. "Well, for now let her rest. By the way, I'm thinking she's thirteen, not ten. She's just underdeveloped due to malnourishment."

"Right Doc. I'll call the Tendo's and see..."

"DOCTOR TOFU! WHERE ARE YOU!" Ryoga's bellow from just outside the window drew both men's attention. 

"Ryoga?" Both men called back, rushing to the window. "Over here man!" Ranma called to the fanged boy.

Ryoga looked towards Ranma's voice and hopped through the window without a moment's hesitation carrying Shampoo and the kitten in his arms. Ranma, on spotting them, yelped and jumped up into a corner on the counter.

"What happened to her!" Tofu exclaimed, taking both cats in his hands, looking over Shampoo first. Both felines showed multiple injuries but the pink Amazon was by far the worst off.

"I don't know! I found her carrying that kitten in some woods outside town. She was guiding me here but passed out a couple of minutes ago."

Tofu walked across the hall and set the Amazon on a table. Turning he found both boys had followed her, distantly in Ranma's case. "Step outside boys. I've got hot water, and would rather treat her as a human."

"Uh, sure Doc." Ranma said, grabbing Ryoga's arm. "Let's let him work." 

Ryoga, concerned about one of his few kind-of-friends, didn't resist as he was pulled into the waiting room.

"Ryoga, I got a weird question for you." Ranma said after settling into one of the clinics comfortable couches. 

"Okay..."

"When you found Shampoo, was there a big hole in the ground? Maybe covered by a piece of wood or metal?"

"Actually yeah. It smelled like someone was cleaning out a septic system. Why?"

Ranma sighed. "It all started when this girl pounced on me from a tree limb."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Groaning, Hiokai Makashi laid back and waited for the nurse to return. The hospital had accepted the story he had given about a work shed falling on him. The multiple gashes from Ki claws were well outside the range of any local animals. 

Little did they know it was his bitch of a daughter that did this to him! "I should have used steel plates to cover that damn hole!" 

He hadn't really believed what he'd been told when he bought the Manual. After all, who could burst through three-inch thick particleboard like it wasn't there?

Obviously a Neko-Ken fighter could. The technique was all he had hoped for, and the psychological damage irrelevant, assuming he could find the girl!

But first, he had to heal.

_______________________________________________________________________________

"Yeah Kasumi, I'll be by in a few minutes to pick them up. Your sure pop isn't around though?"

_"Yes Ranma. He and Father went out to run some errands for me."_

"Well darn. I'll have to get the manual from him later." Ranma looked up when Doctor Tofu entered the room. "Gotta go and find out how everyone's doing. See you soon."

Hanging up the phone, Ranma turned expectant eyes onto the Chiropractor. "They are okay, or going to be anyway. Shampoo is awake, but running a high temp and I've ordered several series worth of Rabies vaccines because of what she's told me. If you two want to talk to her, go ahead."

"Um. What about the kitten? Shampoo acted like it was real important." Ryoga questioned.

Tofu sighed sadly. "It's likely contracted rabies and will have to be destroyed. She isn't really pleased with that, or me, right now."

The two boys nodded, though Ranma's face lacked some sympathy. "We'll talk to her. What about the other girl?"

"Still sleeping, but all her vitals are steady. She'll need the shots too I'm afraid..."

"She was one of the cats, wasn't she?"

Tofu nodded, not surprised the boy's had figured it out. "Yes. She say's she tried to keep the cats away from her, but she was fighting a hundred to one odds and ended up barely protecting the girl's face."  
Ranma nodded. "Wondered why her face wasn't more scratched up. Can we see Shampoo now?"

"Go ahead."

The two young Martial Artists slipped past the doctor and into Shampoo's room. Inside they found the lavender haired girl lying on the bed petting the kitten whom meowed piteously. The cat was so beat up looking that even Ranma wasn't intimidated by it.

Well, not much, since he did choose a chair a fair distance away on Shampoos other side. "How ya doin, Shampoo?"

"Shampoo hurts, but is okay. Ranma, will you do favor for Shampoo?" She turned, eyes filled with desperation, tightened by the pain she was feeling.

Ranma knew she had to hurt a lot, because her Japanese had been improving since the fight with Saffron. "Yeah, sure. Wha'cha need?"

"I want you to steal a vial from Great Grandma's room. Is pink hand blown glass in a wooden chest. Chest has Shampoos name carved on it."

"Sure, but won't the old ghoul get ticked off?"

"yes."

"Okay. No problem then. What's in it?"

Shampoo looked down at the kitten. "Something to help Shi."

Ranma briefly considered not helping, but relented. He hated the things sure, but that didn't mean he'd just let a cat die. "Okay. Now?"

"Yes please."

Now both boys were sure she was sick. She rarely, if ever, said please. "Be back in a few." Ranma rose and turned to the door, pausing only to glance at Ryoga. "Hey, Ryoga, do me a favor and watch out for anyone dumb enough to teach the Neko-ken. Whoever did that to the girl might show up looking for her."

Ryoga grinned in a very unpleasant way. "No problem. Anyone shows up, I'll make them pay!" Ryoga looked at the pig-tailed boy, the smile deepening. "Even worse then you!"

"I don't know why, but that scares me, man."

__________________________________________________________________________________

In a hospital down town, a man shuddered as though someone had just stepped over his grave.

AN: So you know, I'm of the school of thought that a lot of Ranma and Ryoga's issues are really just excuses at most points in the series. They are the only two main characters who regularly challenge each other's abilities and Ryoga is the only one who can beat Ranma on a Semi-regular basis (Though Ranma DOES always come back, and it's a RARE semi-regular basis.). Also, the Lost boy got Akari later in the Manga and by the time they hit college age, the rivalry is likely more Habit, and frankly fun for them, then anything.

Ryoga is also, bluntly, only steps behind Ranma, having on several occasions forced him to develop new techniques to defeat his own. By the time they hit their current age, I figure Ryoga can take Saffron as easy as Ranma...which means there's something bigger then Saffron running around. That's all the teaser you get.

Lastly, YES Ranma, in my mind, will rest in other people's laps. While I agree he loves Akane (Though I'm not convinced it's "that" kind of love.) he cares for many people deeply. Kasumi (Who I wager could calm a lion with a smile) Ukyo (An old dear friend) and Ranma's mother are likely in this category. Shampoos tendency to glomp and kidnap people is really probably the biggest limiter for her.


	3. Cat girls abound!

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter Three

Carefully, stealthily he crept along the roof. What he was doing was dangerous, he knew that, but that had never stopped him before. 

Cautiously, after making sure the bundle on his back was secure, he climbed over the side of the roof, cleaver fingers finding hand holds even in the smooth wooden walls of the small restaurant. The moment he could he peeked through the window of his goal and smiled when it was empty. "Yes."

Ranma slipped the window open silently and climbed in, quickly locating and opening the large carved wood box in question. Inside he found not one but two of the vials Shampoo asked for. "Well, they look the same and they ain't marked. I guess they're the same things." He muttered, lifting one of the corked vials out of the padded box.

He turned away and walked towards the window, quickly slipping out. His luck ran out, however, when the bag of clothes he had gotten from Kasumi bumped the window, causing it to fall closed behind him. 

Ranma cursed, and hopped to the roof next door trying to out run Cologne. He was sure the old ghoul heard that.

Cologne, seconds later, rushed into her room and froze for an instant when she saw exactly what had been stolen. Moving to the window she watched Ranma disappear over a roof and hurried to give chase. "Son-in-law! What are you doing?" She yelled as she pogoed after him.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Tofu hung up his phone with a frown. A friend in the Children's Welfare Department was going to stop by and try to help him figure out what to do with his rather strange situation, but she couldn't do it till the evening, leaving several hours at the least for them to fend for themselves. 

Rising from his desk, he decided to check on his patients but the sound of his front door opening caught his attention. Walking out he greeted the two men who had entered. "Soun, Genma. It's a good thing you two decided to stop by."

"We were just dropping this book off. What sort of help do you need?" Soun asked, concern on his mustached face. 

Actually, its Genma I need to talk to. Come with me please." He led them down the hall leading to the examination rooms of his clinic. "I need to know some details about the Neko-ken. You see..."

Ryoga, who had chosen that moment to open the door, interrupted him. "Genma! Prepare to die!" He yelled, partly from habit, and punched the pudgy martial artist in his shocked face. Genma slumped, out cold from the fanged boy's titanic blow.

"Ryoga! What did you do that for?" Tofu yelled, unconsciously mimicking Ranma.

"Ranma asked me to." Ryoga replied with a shrug.

"He what?"

As if summoned, Ranma bounced in through an open window, and paused at the sight he ran into. "What happened?"

"Ryoga knocked out your father and said you asked him to, son." Soun said, confused and vaguely disapproving.

"No. All I asked Ryoga to do was beat up anyone dumb enough to try and teach the Neko-ken..." Ranma paused. "Oh, I guess I did ask him to. Thanks man."

"Actually, I kinda enjoyed it." Ryoga chuckled. "Ya got that vial for Shampoo?"

"Oh yeah! And the ghouls hot on my heels, too." The pigtailed boy ducked into Shampoos room, causing her to look up. "Got it Shampoo, now what?"

The Amazon, shaking cobwebs from her mind, set the kitten on the floor while she remained on the bed. "Pour on kitten."

Ranma shrugged, and handed the vial to Ryoga. "Go ahead man. I ain't getting near that thing."

"No. Must be Ranma!" 

Ryoga looked between the two then shook his head. "You do it, Ranma. It's just a kitten. You aren't AFRAID are you?"

"OF COURSE I AIN'T AFRAID!"

Reluctantly Ranma approached the cat, and held the vial out at arms length trying not to get to close to the frightening, helpless kitten. He was so focused on what he was doing, and not running away, that he didn't notice the look of longing Shampoo gave the vial. What happened next shocked everyone including Cologne who arrived just as the water hit. 

"What the hell!" Ranma yelled as the pathetic cat turned into a waifish young girl.

"What do you fools think your doing!" Cologne yelled only an instant later.

Shampoo smiled, slumping back to the bed. "Now Tofu help Shi."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"That's quite a story, but why would Shampoo risk her cure? She didn't know I had a second batch just in case." Cologne wondered aloud. The boys had explained everything they knew to Cologne while Soun and Tofu dealt with the cat turned human. They had all left Genma in the hall. He was just to big, and even Soun figured he'd wake up before to long. 

"My guess is, due to the extreme trauma of being trapped in the pit, mixed in with protecting the kitten for over a day with no sleep, food, and multiple wounds that something like Stockholm syndrome set in. It's not really and exact comparison but it sounds close to me." Ranma replied.

Everyone stared at him like he had grown a second head.

"What?" He growled. "I ain't stupid, and I'm taking psych in school now!"

"And I have to agree with his opinion." Dr. Tofu said, having entered during his theory. "Between the fact that she was all that was keeping the kitten alive, and the frustration of not being able to help the girl she basically imprinted on the kitten in a, I suppose maternal way."

"How are all of them, by the way?"

"That's actually why I came back out. Shampoo and the kitten are resting peacefully, and I've injected the vaccinations into them, but the other girl has woken up and she is still acting like a cat."

"What? How?" Ranma yelled, rising and knocking his glass of water over into his lap. "I always snap out after falling asleep!" She paused, and looked down at herself. "Aw geeze!" 

"Meow!" The sound, from a human throat, proceeded the girl who once again pounced on Ranma, purring and nuzzling Ranma's shoulder with he cheek, gleefully unaware of the twitches such actions caused in the girl.

"Um, what is she doing?"

"Showing affection." Cologne replied, reasonably amused. She opened her Ki senses wide and examined the girl, and what she found disturbed her. "She's thirteen."

"That's what I was guessing." Tofu replied, though it wasn't a question. 

"That is well over the age to train a child for the Neko-ken. I'm amazed she even survived it."

"Okay, fine, but what can we do to snap her out of cat mode? She's freakin me out!" Ranma demanded.

"We may not be able to, son-in-law." 

"We have to!"  
Ryoga nodded, for once agreeing with Ranma. "Come on granny, there has to be something we can do."

"There is one possibility, but there is something..." 

"What Cologne?" Tofu asked.

"The Yang Point."

"Your right, it is dangerous." Tofu agreed.

"What, pray tell, is the Yang Point?" Soun asked.

"A mistake. The Amazons developed many advanced Shiatsu and pressure point techniques, as you all know, but none as dangerous as the Yang Touch for the user."

"And it does what, exactly?" Ryoga demanded.

"It boosts the users Ki by about three hundred percent or more."

"You're kidding! Nice trick!" 

"That's what my ancestors thought. However, it doesn't boost your Kin equally, but just part of your Ki. The most dominant part."

"Like confidence or depression for P-chan and me?"

"Shut up, Ranma." Ryoga said absently.

Cologne shook her head. "More basic then that. In most cases it will boost the Male or Female aspect of it's victim."

"How would that help?"

Cologne sat back, expecting a long explanation. "For most forms of mental illnesses absolutely none. The Neko-ken and a few other situations are special cases. Exceptions to the rules."

"Okay, why?" Ranma growled. He was getting frustrated with dragging information out of the Matriarch.

"Because, son-in-law, during the Neko-ken training the trainee, or victim if you prefer, absorbs the Ki of the cats they kill, and becomes spiritually part cat themselves."

"You mean Ranma and the girl ate the cat's souls?" Ryoga asked horrified, then yelped in pain when she smacked him with the staff.

"No, though I see that's what you all thought. It's more like taking a recording of the essence of being a cat. Their souls go on to wherever cat souls go, but their life essence stays with you." Cologne paused, letting them consider that for a few moments. "However, people's Ki becomes more efficient at capturing ki as time goes on. A young child's Ki is by nature chaotic and elastic, so it is very inefficient at absorbing more, though it adapts to the Ki around it more easily then an adult. This girl's ki is far more organized then is safe for the Neko-ken."

"So you want to boost her...Human ki?"

"Her human female ki. If I'm right, she is still mostly human, but only barely. The boost, which will increase her ability to store her feminine ki will possibly bring her out of it, and bring her to the level of Son-in-law's problem.

Um, pardon me for asking, but where is the bad here?" Ryoga asked.

"Because all beings NEED male and female Ki. Once or twice and she'd be fine if a bit more feminine. After that she'd be to female."

"This from an Amazon." Ranma muttered.

"Son-in-law, it was only a century before my own birth when 'and kill them once pregnant.' was removed from the outsider mirage laws. There weren't more then a handful of males in the tribe until my generation because of the insanity being 'too female' brought on. Males are even worse and it has been used on them in the past. "

"Oh, okay...That is bad." Ranma agreed. "But once won't hurt her?"

"No. Unless I'm misreading her aura and the cats overwhelmed the girl. If so we can't get her back."

"We have to risk it then. It sounds like her only chance." Tofu said.

"Yes, but there is one other risk."

"What now?" Ranma moaned.

"While the Yang touch is in effect, for about the next hour or so, she will have enough Ki to accidentally fire Ki blasts if she gets over emotional."

"Great."

AN: Doesn't that just sound like the sort of technique someone would develop in the Ranma 1/2 universe.

And as for whoever or whatever the main bad guy in this little tail may end up being...I must restate something. He will likely be more dangerous then Saffron...but power isn't the only requirement for danger now is it?


	4. Daughters Overwhelming Love

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

"I didn't know your clinic had a bomb shelter. I didn't think the building was that old?" Ranma-chan commented, entering the cinder block room under the clinic its self. In her arm the neko-ken-trapped girl looked around why happily nuzzling the red head.

"Its not, but Nerima building codes require them for some reason." Soun answered for the Doctor. "Our home has one under the Dojo, but I think Ka... My older daughter uses it for a meditation room now."

"Oh."

Ryoga and Cologne ignored the conversation, both looking over the construction with trained eyes. "Its a well built room, I'll give it that. I'd have to use two Buksai Tenketsu's to blow through the walls." The fanged boy commented. He missed the surprised look thrown his way by the Matriarch.

Thoughtfully she re-estimated Ryoga's abilities since she her self had thought three at the least would be needed. "Either way, it should keep her from injuring innocent by standers. Close the door Ryoga."

As the Vault like door sealed, Cologne approached Ranma, who had sat down on the lone bunk in the small room. "Shall I then?"

Ranma considered the kitten like girl in his lap. "Where is the point? Do I need to shift her around?"

"No need." Cologne said softly relived by the girl's calm acceptance of a scratch behind the ears from an old woman. "The point is right here, at the back of the head." Cologne gestured, indicating the exact point.

Ranma considered the location for a moment, nervously. "Um... Naw..." 

He didn't remember getting really powerful when he thought he was a girl, and no one mentioned Ki blasts, so he shrugged it off. It had to be a coincidence.

"Very well, if everyone's ready, lets get started." Cologne rolled her shoulder. Her memory of the only time she had ever done this was a little fuzzy so she was preparing for anything. "Everyone back as far away as you can. Ranma, can you get her to slide onto the bed, and let you step away as well?"

Ranma tried, and luckily the girl was happy to sit on the bed and meow. Ranma managed not to flinch too often.

"Okay then...NOW!" Cologne firmly tapped the girl...and was tossed across the room by the physical force of the girl's aura as it exploded around her. Ryoga's fast reflexes in catching the old woman were all that saved the surprised matriarch from hitting the wall. "Thank you Ryoga. I had forgotten about that!" 

The girl whimpered, her aura shifting colors as she flowed through several emotions before realizing she was safe. She sat up, a bit dizzily, and peered around like the human she truly was. She nervously eyed all the strangers until her eyes landed on Ranma herself. She gasped in shocked, and dove at her yelling "MOMMY!"

The room filled with an explosion of lavender colored power.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Shampoo sat by Shi, the kitten turned girl, and watched her sleep. She had been relieved to find the others absent when she had moved from her room to the kittens own. The curiosity she felt towards why they were absent was easily over shadowed by the fact they weren't telling her to rest.

Shampoo caressed the kitten-girls cheek lightly as she slept and absently wondered how big a fit her great grandmother was going to throw when she decided her grand daughter was well enough to survive it.

"Oh..." A groan came from the door, causing Shampoo to turn her head towards it. "What happened?" Genma asked, crawling into the room on the floor. "Shampoo? What happened?" 

"Ranma's Pop get punched by lost boy. Get punched for good reason too."

"What reason could Ryoga have to hit me?"

"Genma get comfortable. Shampoo have a very long story for you."

Genma did as suggested, as much as he could with his massive migraine and waited. Shampoo made sure the cat-girl was still sleeping soundly before speaking. "Shampoo was on her way home from trip to visit family. I got hit by water and grabbed by a bad man, and thrown into a pit of half starved cats. Sound familiar?"

Genma nodded a feeling of dread filling his soul. "Yes...Yes I do."

"Well Shampoo trapped in hole for many hours, save a kitten from being food for hungry toms, when a little girl is thrown in by bad man. Shampoo tried to help the girl, but couldn't keep up and the third time she was thrown in, she discover Neko-ken and kill all the cats but Shampoo and Shi." She gestured at the girl.

"You said you were with a kitten..."

"Jusenkyo water. All but the last Drowned girl water on planet."

"Right." Genma nodded, wondering why she hadn't used it on her self before.

"Shampoo finally get out of pit and Ryoga help get her here... Must find Ryoga good Amazon wife as thank you, Weak pig girl not strong enough I think."

"Any way, Ranma found the poor neko-ken girl and bring her here, like Ryoga did for Shampoo. I ask Ranma to go get Jusenkyo water, and he ask Ryoga to hit 'Anyone who looked stupid enough to train Neko-ken.'"

"Oh... Heh..."

"So Ryoga have very good reason."

Genma opened his mouth to ask a question when the clinic started shuddering as though caught in a small earthquake. Both Shampoo and Genma stood when the light shaking didn't stop right away.

Both also felt the massive amounts of Ki pouring from underneath the clinic. "What is that?" Genma yelled.

"It come from down stairs." Shampoo said, staggering to her feet and out the exam room door, Genma following somewhat reluctantly.

Soon both martial artists found themselves in the small basement beneath the clinic staring at the sealed door of the bomb shelter and the lavender light pouring underneath it, almost physical and water like in it's movements.

"That where Ranma is!" Shampoo said. She hadn't been told, but she knew Ranma would be anywhere something that strange was happening.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma struggled against the waves of energy, slowly moving her arm against the power and towards the girl's neck. The roar of the girl's power drowned out whatever she was saying, but Ranma saw the tears rolling down her eyes. The tears pierced Ranma's heart even through the pain.

The ki blast wasn't, on the surface, that powerful. Compared to his Mouko Takibasha or Ryoga's Shi Shi Hokodan it was a light slap, but that slap had been continuing for over thirty seconds and was still going strong! Finally she got her hand where she wanted it, and forced a finger to touch a specific point firmly, channeling her own ki into the tip to give it the strength it needed.

The girl fainted with the application of the Shiatsu attack, falling instantly asleep. "Is everyone all right?" Ranma asked, blinking her eyes trying to clear the light shadows clouding her sight.

"No!" Ryoga yelled back. "But I'll live."

"I'm fine." Cologne replied.

"Ouch." Was Tofu's response while Soun just groaned.

The door, which they hadn't locked, swung open with the groan of strained metal. Genma looked in carefully. "What happened?"

"We cured the girl, removed her from the trap of the Neko-ken." Cologne replied, momentarily forgetting Genma had been out cold for the planning of this little adventure. "That was the unplanned side effect."

Shampoo peeked in around Genma, having used him as a shield. "Very pretty side effect."

The survivors groaned.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Across town, Hiokai Makashi limped out of the hospital, all his wounds bandaged. He had refused to allow himself to be hospitalized, in favor of finding his daughter. The black Gi he had been wearing was in shreds so he was wearing a cheap surgical scrub that the nurse had given him.

"That girl is going to pay when I find her. But she will be everything he wants!" He chuckled darkly. He stumbled off, heading for the pit he had started this all out at. 

He was a good hunter, so tracking a crazy girl should be easy.


	5. Who They Are

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 or any other Anime or Manga titles...yet.

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter Four

"Hello, Ritsu Mirakai's office, how can I help you?" Ritsu herself answered her phone, trying to sound cheerful. She'd been having a long, unsatisfying day as a Child Welfare caseworker, but she kept plugging away, knowing the value of her successes outweighed the failures. The temporary failures. 

_"Ritsu? It's Ono."_

"Oh, is there a problem? I've still got half an hour more before quitting time."

_"Not a problem. I've got the girl's name now, though, so if you'd like to check that out I could give it to you."_

"Great. That'll give me the details, if she's been taken into state custody before or anything like that."

__

"Himeko Makashi."

"Got it." The social worker said, tapping the name into her keyboard. Her eyes widened when the screen filled with a large, full file with danger warnings. "Ono, do you have any of those 'special patients' of yours around?"

_"Yes, several of them in fact."_

"Good, keep them there." She had already set her printer, fortunately a high-speed model, to spitting out a copy of the report. "I'll give you details when I get there but do not let that girl out of your sight. Period."

"Why?"

"Her father is pure evil." She hung up and dialed her boss. He'd want her to take the police with her, but that might just draw Hiokai Makashi faster. This was one temporary failure that she wasn't going to allow to remain one, even if it killed her.

And from what the file said, it just might.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Tofu blinked in shock as the sound of a phone slamming down cut off his questions. Shrugging, he walked back into the waiting room where Genma, Soun, Ranma, Cologne, Shampoo and Ryoga filled the couches. The Kitten turned girl, who Shampoo had named Shi, and Himeko both sat, in the floor, surrounded by the adults. Tofu's small office television had been brought out and put on the floor to presumably entertain the two children but Himeko was ignoring it in favor of sitting against Ranma-chan's legs. 

Ranma, who had chosen not to change back and confuse the girl, looked up. "What did she say Doc?"

"We are not to let Himeko out of our sight. She sounded pretty upset but didn't go into detail. She also said I should keep you all around and not let Himeko out of our sight."

"Heck, Doc, none of us was planning to leave for a while anyway." Ranma assured him. 

Tofu opened his mouth to ask how Shampoo was feeling when a knock came from the front door. "Who is it?" The doctor called out. He'd closed the clinic shortly before they had taken Himeko down to the bomb shelter, which was over two hours ago. 

"It's me, Dr. Tofu. Akane. My sister sent some dinner for everyone!"

Tofu opened the door letting Akane in before closing it and locking it again. She was carrying two large, food filled baskets. "She said she didn't know how many were over here, so she packed for an army." Glancing at the crowd, she grinned. "Might not be enough, actually."

"Great!" Ranma chirped. "I'm starving!" 

"Like that's any great surprise." Akane shook her head. "Where did you want me to put it?"

"If you can hold on a moment I'll set up a couple of folding tables." Tofu replied. "Soun, Ryoga, Genma, would you mind helping? You stay, Ranma, the Himeko's happier with you near her."

The four Male Men (As opposed to the one Female Man) left the room to get said tables, while Akane settled onto a couch next to Shampoo. The amazon girl had picked Shi up off the floor and set her in her lap. "I take it she's the former cat, while the one clutching Ranma is the Neko-ken girl?" The shorthaired girl said.

"Yes." Shampoo said, then got an impish look in her eyes. "Shampoo think Ranma get engaged again and no tell us."

Akane grinned. "Maybe he beat her in combat. That's fine glomping form she's got there, almost Amazon quality." Both girls giggled. The Fiancee brigade had settled down in the past couple of years, much like Ryoga and Ranma them selves.

"Hey, it ain't funny!" Ranma growled, causing the girls to laugh harder. Shi joined in with the laughing, not really understanding what was happening, but her slowly developing human mind thought it looked like fun.

Ryoga and the others quickly arrived with the card tables and soon everyone was eating a Kasumi made meal. Ryoga asked "So um...what are we going to do about these two?"

"Yeah. Shampoo isn't in trouble is she?" Ranma asked, ignoring Akane's glare. He felt slightly responsible since he helped Shampoo defy her grandmother.

"Officially, no. Amazon law says that animals cursed to be human by Jusenkyo are to be treated as human and there are no actually laws against intentionally cursing animals, outside of it being considered cruelty to animals. Shampoo's reasons definitely prove that is not the case." Cologne shot her great granddaughter a sharp glare. "But I my self am less then thrilled with her right now."

"An Himeko?" Shampoo asked, in an attempt to redirect attention.

Tofu spoke up. "My friend Ritsu Mirakai should be here shortly after work to help us figure that out." As if summoned, another knock shook the door. "Who is it?"

"It's Ritsu, let me in!" Came the reply through the thin door. The surprised doctor soon did as he was asked and offered her a seat. " That was fast. How..."

"My boss more then considers this a priority Ono. Himeko's father is not just abusive and known to us, but a wanted man!"

"Why?"

The social worker looked at the sad looking, and nervous little girl and wished she didn't have to tell them, but she couldn't sugar coat it. "The murder of his wife, and kidnapping of his daughter."

________________________________________________________________________________

Hiokai Makashi growled in frustration as he crawled up another tree. It didn't occur to him when he started hunting his daughter that she might use the tree limbs to travel, and not the ground. He Ki claws left visible marks on every limb she touched, but he found he had to keep climbing with the growth of spring filling out the trees. He was again wearing a gi, having recovered his pack from their camp site before setting out on the hunt.

This wasn't the first time he had to chase his daughter, the girl had run away a number of times before, but this is the first time she had traveled as fast of as far as now. Still he suspected he was getting near the end of the trail because the trees were showing more claw marks, suggesting she paused to rest.

Finally he came to the last tree, and found no signs of claws on the ground. "Could she have snapped out of it?" He wondered out loud, looking for some signs of where the girl went after the park tree. His random searching found a blue wallet, which he picked up and opened. It had only a couple of yen, which he pocketed, but it also had the owner's name and address. "Ranma Saotome. How nicely full circle."

__________________________________________________________________________________

"He did WHAT?" Ranma exclaimed, holding the girl who had started crying at the woman's statement close. 

"He killed his wife in the process of taking Himeko from her. The courts had given custody to Ms. Keiko Makashi when they divorced due to Hiokai's criminal record, mostly violent crimes."

"My god." Akane whispered. She had opened the file, and was staring at one of the pictures in shock. Her gasp had drawn attention and Cologne looked from the picture to Ranma. "Well that explains that."

"What?" When Ranma her self looked at the picture, her eyes widened in surprise. The picture could have been of her cursed form in just a few years. "Well damn!" Ranma took a closer look at Himeko, ignoring the injuries he had already documented and now looking at her face and hair. The dirty hair definitely had a red tint to it, while her eyes, a sapphire blue like her own, where in an elfin face. Ranma would think they were brother and sister if not for knowing better. "That's just spooky!"

"What do we do now, Ms. Mirakai?" Soun asked. Several of the people around the tables were shocked, and even impressed, with Soun's stance. He had quietly taken everything in, and was radiating a firm strength he wasn't known for. Only Cologne and Tofu could sense the barely bottled rage that hid just beneath the unusually calm surface. Soun Tendo, father of three daughters and who still loved his dead wife, was personally offended by the story he was hearing, and he was never known for controlling his emotions.

"Well, normally in these cases we either take her to a state home, find living family for her to stay with, or a foster home. Unfortunately she has no living family, and the last time she was put into state custody her 'father' broke in and severely injured several employees in the process of dragging her out.

"Please don't let him take me back..." The girl whimpered, her small arms wrapped around Ranma's. Shi, sensitive if not really understanding why the girl was upset reached over and hugged the girl, since that was what all the nice other cats did to her and made her feel better.

Ranma, even as uncomfortable as he was with showing affection, also gave the girl a squeeze. "Don't worry. That is so not happening."

"You are right, son. It's not." Genma spoke up for the first time. "We'll take her in. We moved back to the house, and have that spare bedroom after all. Might as well use it."

"Damn Pop. Ya surprise me sometimes!" Ranma said, almost respectfully. "But if you even think about training her..."

"Come on boy, I wasn't that bad."

"True, compared to this guy, you're father of the year." Ranma admitted. "But yeah, we can definitely keep this guy away from her."

"Besides, he doesn't even know she's here, right?"

AN: Okay, is he worse then Genma? I'm just curious.   



	6. Get ready for a Surprise

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2. I admit it. I am not Rumiko Takihashi. I'm not even Japanese. I am from Earth though, if that helps.

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter Five

"And that's the whole story, Mom." Ranma said, looking at Nodoka Saotome, waiting for her reaction. Ranma, along with her father, Himeko and Ritsu Mirakai had walked to the Saotome Home to present this new situation to the Auburn Haired Matriarch of the Saotome clan. Ryoga had tried to come along but had gotten lost while Akane wasn't allowed by Nadoka's post wedding 'Not in my house' announcement, forbidding fiancee's from the house unless invited by Ranma. 

As much as he wanted to invite Akane this time, she didn't want to open THAT can of worms lightly. She liked sleeping way too much. 

"Of course she can stay then!" Nodoka had been fingering the family honor blade for most of the conversation. "Frankly I wouldn't let you take her Ms. Mirakai."

"I'm glad to hear it, and after Ono's explanation of Ranma's history..." Her glare was matched by Nodoka's own as they found the cowering Genma. "You and Ranma are well equipped for her special case. Just keep your husband in line."

"It's become my primary vocation this past year." Nodoka assured her. 

"Well, assuming it's okay with Himeko?" The social worker smiled as the girl shyly nodded. "Good. I'll bring the paperwork by tomorrow." The woman stood, and with a bow she left the Saotome home. 

"Let's get you tucked in then." Nodoka smiled at Himeko. "And it'll give my son a chance to change!" 

Himeko stood after a nod from Ranma and took Nodoka's hand. She asked, shyly but curious "Why do you call Ranma-sama 'son' and 'boy'?"

"You didn't tell her?" 

"Um. We didn't want to confuse her." Ranma replied, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. 

"Go get the hot water then. She needs to know."

Ranma-chan nodded, and hopped up quickly to fetch a glass of hot and cold water. Soon returning he sighed and looked at Himeko. "Don't get scared or nothing Himeko, but I'm cursed. Ya see, I'm really a boy but if I get splashed by cold water I change into this rather cute little body." She grinned maliciously at Genma's wince. While Ranma never planned on liking the curse, two years had a way of forcing adaptation. "Hot water changes me back." The black haired boy replaced the red haired girl. "Oh, one more thing..." Suddenly Ranma splashed his shocked father, changing him into a Panda with the cold water. 

Himeko looked back and forth between the two Saotome men before finding the words to express her thoughts. "That was COOL!" 

The Saotome's all face faulted hard. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Hiokai Makashi hid in a tree, across the street from the Saotome home. The tall cherry tree gave him a clear view of Nodoka gently putting Himeko to bed in a guestroom. He smiled darkly and settled in for a long wait. Finally all the lights in the house shut off, and he counted out half an hour more before dropping to the ground and stealthily crossing the road, and scaling the Saotome's walls. Soon he was under his daughter's window and prepared to jump.

A tapping interrupted him on his shoulder. He turned to meet a sadistic fanged grin. "Ranma's going to be so upset I found you first."

Hiokai threw a savage, Pre-emptive punch at Ryoga's face, followed by a combination of kicks and punches at extremely high speed. Every punch missed as Ryoga unintentionally imitated his rival, Ranma. "My turn. Now PREPARE TO DIE!" The fanged boy hissed, not wanting to wake up the little girl. 

His first blow seemed to come out of no where, driving into the mans gut like a cannonball. It was followed by a knee and an elbow, the later of which drove into the cruel mans face. 

Hiokai flew across the yard, gasping from both new and old injuries. 'I can't fight now! I'm to hurt!' he thought to himself, groaning. He grabbed out of his gi a handful of smoke-pepper bombs and threw them to Ryoga's feet. Using the distraction he hurdled the compound's wall and ran.

Ryoga finally managed to get clear of the smoke, by hitting, accidentally, the house's wall and sliding along it. Ryoga growled, and thought about chasing the coward but instead pulled off his pack. He was tired and was sure he'd get a second chance. Especially if he stayed near Himeko. For the first time in a long time, it wasn't Ranma Ryoga craved to beat. 

And he planed to give Hiokai a beating that his ancestors would feel!

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning a yawning Ranma walked down and into his family's dining room. "Morning mom, Old man, Himeko. Hey Ryoga." The pig-tailed boy paused blinking. "When the heck did you get here?"

"Last night. Good thing too!"

Nodoka nodded, gracing her son's occasionally violent friend with a smile and a plate of food. "I found him and his tent under Himeko's window, guarding her. You have very manly friends Ranma."

"P-chan here does have his moments."

"Don't call me P-chan!" 

"As it turns out, he did show up at a good time. Himeko's father tried to steal her back last night." Genma shook his head in disapproval. 

"What you so bothered about? Him failing insults your professional pride or something?" Ranma asked, accepting the rice his mother handed him with a smile. 

"Yes, he was very... NO!" Genma caught himself a bit late. "I'll grant I'd have succeeded but that doesn't mean I want him to get her back boy!" 

"Whoa pop, calm down." Ranma said, thought his grin was not really apologetic. "Don't want you to blow a gasket!"

"After breakfast we'll see who the real martial artist in this house is!" He growled at his son.

Himeko gasped, and clutched Ranma's arm looking up at him in fear and concern. Ranma looked down and gave her a wink and the smile known for bringing women out of the woodwork (Once literally). Then he looked across the table, peering across with a hand over his eyes looking at Ryoga, then Genma, then behind them. "Hey Ryoga? Were we going to fight today?"

"It's not like we really plan that Ranma."

"Then what Martial Artist do you think he's talking about?"

Ryoga looked at Genma, then back at Ranma. Calmly, with a serious, sober expression he replied "I don't know."

"GRR! That's it! I'll take both of you on!" Genma yelled, grabbing both boys and throwing them out the door into the yard, following them quickly.

Himeko looked at Nodoka, fear on her face. The older woman patted her head. "They're just playing. It's a man thing."

______________________________________________________________________________

Hiokai watched again, hidden in the cherry tree, in respectful horror as Ryoga and the two Saotome's sparred. Of the tree of them, he was sure he could beat Genma at his full abilities. Ryoga and Ranma, both half his age, moved with grace, speed, and power that the black clothed martial artist wouldn't have believed it possible if he hadn't seen it. 

He watched as Nodoka holding his daughter's hand, stepped onto the porch to watch. He sneered at the sundress they had put her in. "how is she supposed to fight in that?" He muttered. He did approve of her wide-eyed examination of the three men. He could almost feel her desire to learn the only trait she had that he liked. 

Nodding, he hopped down and away from the area. "I'll let them teach her a little before I take her back. They are sentimental fools and will train her I'm sure. I think I'll train for a while myself." 

After all, it meant he didn't have to feed her for a while. 

__________________________________________________________________________________

"Xian Pu." Shampoo said, looking at Shi.

"Zan Mew." Shi tried. 

"No. Xian Pu." Shampoo demonstrated again.

"Man You?" Shi mangled it nicely. 

"Not at all! One more time. Xian Pu!" 

"Shampoo?"

Shampoo groaned as Cologne, who'd been watching the whole affair, burst out laughing. "She is a Japanese cat, and it's not that bad a nickname. You use it yourself!" 

"Own daughter should know my real name." Shampoo had told Cologne, in no uncertain terms, that she was adopting Shi as her daughter and an Amazon. The old woman had agreed, thrilled at Shampoo's show of dedication.

"Great Grandma! Is Shampoo!" The girl said cheerfully giggling. Cologne just nodded. 

Tofu, who insisted on keeping Shampoo at the clinic over night asked "Shi's learning language very quickly. Do you know why?"

"Jusenkyo. All the curses seem to come with a basic understanding of how to survive in the cursed form like Mouse and flight as a duck. In the case of animals with human curses there is about a month where they seem to pick up spoken language at an almost frightening pace. While that will stop soon, I intend to introduce her to as many languages as possible until then."

"Will she become essentially human with an inverted curse?"

Cologne shrugged. "You'll have to ask her in a few years. Bu Fee and Scr'eech are two adopted tribe members who share Shi's problems. Both have different answers to that question."

"I will admit, Shi is not likely to develop a very intellectual bent. She'll always be a creature of passion and instinct, just human passion and instinct has been added to a cat."

Tofu nodded. "She won't try to pounce on people will she?"

"Only for a while, or when she's excited. Should cause son-in-law a few fits, eh?"

"Ono, are you here?" Ritsu Mirakai's voice called from the entryway. 

"I'll be right back." Tofu said as he rose, walking out to meet the social worker. "Hey. Didn't expect you back today."

"I brought something by for Shampoo." She handed a file folder to Tofu. "It's all paperwork saying Shi is a human girl, and her adopted daughter."

"How? And why?"

"How, I'm not telling. Why is because she asked me last night about it. If Shi's stuck living a human life, she'll need a human identity."

"Well, I'm sure Shampoo will thank you." 

"Tell her I'll let her buy me dinner later. Right now I've got to get over to the Saotome's for some signatures." Ritsu paused. "Did you know Ranma is listed as the Clan leader of the Saotome family?"

"No, but it wouldn't really surprise me. I know Nodoka was when she first came around."

"Okay. Well, I'll see you later."

Tofu waved, then looked down at the file in his hand. "You know, it has been quiet around here the past few months. I should have been expecting this."

__________________________________________________________________________________

Nodoka sighed as she paged through an old photo album. The pictures, black and white as most of them were, brought both joy and sorrow to her heart. The pictures were not of Ranma or Genma, but of her own family, and her youth. 

She smiled at a picture of her Father and her Uncle Stephen, standing like real tough guys for the camera at a fair. Uncle Stephen and her father had been business partners running an import/export business between the US and Japan. 

Her mother, a happy woman who loved to take care of her family, more then anything, was in the next photo. It showed her and a young Nodoka and Miaka, her twin, cooking dinner. 

"Oh! I'd forgotten about this! Nodoka exclaimed with a laugh. The action picture showed her with a boken in hand, pummeling a young Genma while yelling at him. She giggled like a younger woman thinking of the few traits HER men had in common, including a poor internal speech editor. Of course, she hadn't been real thrilled about an arranged marriage either.

She flipped the page and frowned, looking at the picture of her younger brother. She and her sister sat to either side of the glowering young man, five years younger then the teen girls. She flipped quickly hoping what she feared wasn't true. 

Then she reached the last photo she owned of her brother, his features even harsher then when he was a boy. The picture was only half way through the big book, but she knew he didn't appear later on in it's page's, even the wedding photo's for her and Genma's marriage wouldn't have him appear. 

Her father had disowned him shortly after for the dishonor he'd brought to the family, when it happened Nodoka hadn't understood, and had felt betrayed by her family. Now she feared, she understood. 

"Oh Hiokai... What have you become?"

AN: Take THAT!


	7. Revelations

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2, but the original characters in her is mine. Ask to use them...well, at least tell me IF you use them. I wanna read the story too!   


****

Ranma Papa, Shampoo Mama

Chapter Six

Nodoka flipped the pages of her old photo album and frowned, looking at the picture of her younger brother. She and her sister sat to either side of the glowering young man, five years younger then the teen girls. She flipped quickly hoping what she feared wasn't true. 

Then she reached the last photo she owned of her brother, his features even harsher then when he was a boy. The picture was only half way through the big book, but she knew he didn't appear later on in it's page's, even the wedding photo's for her and Genma's marriage wouldn't have him appear. 

Her father had disowned him shortly after for the dishonor he'd brought to the family, when it happened Nodoka hadn't understood, and had felt betrayed by her family. Now she feared, she understood. 

"Oh Hiokai... What have you become?"

"Mrs. Saotome?" The voice of the young girl, Himeko, shook Nodoka out of her reverie. 

"Yes Himeko? What is it?"

"I..." The nervous child stuttered. "May I have some water?"

"Yes, Himeko. Unless you'd like a soda instead dear." 

"Yes please." The girl smiled at that thought. She'd rarely gotten to have any treats while with her father. 

"Good. And we'll get you some water too!" Nodoka winked. "Ranma looks hot, now doesn't he? I'm sure he'd welcome it if you gave him a splash." Both ladies laughed mischievously. "Oh, and call me Auntie Saotome dear. I'd prefer it." Nodoka said, thinking 'The truth is always best. I will call father this evening and try to work this out with him.'

She didn't notice Ranma enter the dining room as she left, hand in hand with Himeko. She didn't notice him freeze in shock when he spotted the photo album, and the picture so similar to the one in Himeko's Child Welfare file.

"What the hell?"

____________________________________________________________________________________

Ritsu Mirakai knocked on the Saotome's front door, smiling pleasantly. She blinked in mild surprise when a girl she hadn't met previously opened the door. "Um... Hello. I'm Ritsu Mirakai, are the Saotome's home?"

"Yeah, step on in, but they might be a while. I'm Ukyo Kounji by the way."

"Good to meet you." 

"He's WHAT?" Ranma's voice came through the house, incredulity almost oozing from the sound.

"What's wrong?" The social worker asked as Ukyo led her into the living room. Himeko was sitting on the couch, staring at the closed dinning room door. 

"I'm not real sure. Ranchan hasn't even explained Himeko-chan here, and was really vague when he asked me to keep an eye on her. She says she isn't another fiancee."

'Why is that such a big deal around here?' Ritsu wondered. 

"They're talking about my father." Himeko spoke up. She turned and looked at the two older women. "They've been yelling for a long time."

"Boy! How should she have known?" Genma's voice poured over them. "Hiokai isn't THAT uncommon a name! Of course she had to check her photo albums!" 

Ritsu blinked. "Okay..." 

"They've been yelling since I got here. I'm only here because he didn't want Himeko in the room during the argument." Ukyo sat down. "Sometimes I regret not going to college." She muttered.

The reasons why Ranma had called Ukyo were that she was a martial artist, meaning she could slow Hiokai down if not stop him, and her restaurant wasn't open in the morning, at least not the whole morning. Ukyo had decided not to go to college, even the early or late classes, because of her reasonable business success. Akane and Shampoo were both either busy at school or injured while Ryoga had managed to get lost shortly after the men stopped sparing. 

"Ranma, if you want to yell at someone, yell at me!" Genma's voice raised above the wall's ability to absorb again. "I'm the one who gave him the manual!" 

The dull, indistinct roar of an argument stopped abruptly, and Ritsu suddenly felt like se was sitting near a high power transformer. Not living in Nerima, she wasn't familiar with Battle auras.

"Now boy... Let me expl..." Genma's plea was cut off by the sound of flesh striking flesh and something splintering wood. All three occupants of the living room jumped up and rushed to the door. They slid it open to find Genma pulling himself out of the wreckage of the porch doors. Ranma was literally glowing with rage. 

"Ranma! I didn't even know he had a daughter! I honestly thought he was going to try and teach it to himself! Hiokai was always a little fanatical!"

Ranma's battle aura faded, but he was still visibly angry. "Fine. But you could have told me who they were."

Nodoka grabbed Ranma's arm. "He couldn't because I asked him not to ever mention him to you. I didn't want you to know!" 

"That I can understand! How could this Hiokai freak possibly be related to us!"

"What!" Yelled three feminine voices.

The three Saotome's froze, and turned to look at Ritsu, and the other girls. "Um... Well... Let me explain." Nodoka stuttered, in a manner rather similar to her own son.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Doctor Tofu. May Shi have cookie?"

Ono tofu looked down at the small girl, smiling at the intense expression her gray/green eyes held. "You liked your first one eh?"

"Better then worms!" She nodded, vaguely disturbing Tofu with the fact that she seemed to think that was very good indeed.

"One more." Tofu agreed, handing the girl a cookie, which she promptly broke in half. She smiled with her slightly over developed canines. "Want part?"

"Thank you." He said, taking the half a cookie. He watched her bounce off, passing under the small kitchen table instead of around it. 

"Impressive isn't it?" Cologne asked, pogoing in. "The young are so adaptable." 

"I have to admit her language skills are shocking." 

"If bellow par for an eleven-year-old now, by the end of the month she'll speak like other little girls, and make me wish for hot water!" Both adults laughed. 

"What I really came in here to ask is if it is okay for Shampoo to head home."

"She's free to go, along with Shi. Both seem fine since Shampoo's fever broke, though I'm urging you to go without a waitress for a couple of days."

"Of course."  
"One question. Do you know why Shi keeps breaking her food? I mean, this time she offered me a share, but she did it to most of the potato chips and the hot dog I gave her earlier."

"I haven't the foggiest. Shampoo goes through periods where she does it to." The old woman chuckled. "You know cats, always mysterious."

Tofu nodded, picking up the cup of tea he'd been making and walking out with Cologne following beside him. "If either of the girls show symptoms of any illness, call me and I'll come over. The inoculation should handle the Rabies infection, but their other injuries could have complications."

"I am familiar with the healing arts, Doctor. I will call if there are any problems."  
"Right." Tofu nodded. "Oh! I almost forgot." Turning the doctor dashed into his office, and quickly reappeared with a backpack. "Ka... Kasumi dropped this off earlier, before you came back. She thought Shi would probably like some clothes and everything she sent for Himeko was way to big, or so Akane told her."

"Well, that is nice of her. She's a little passive, but Kasumi's a fine girl." Cologne smiled. "Are the tapes helping?"

"Since I'm not dancing with my skeleton, they must be." Tofu frowned. "It's going slowly."

"These things do." Cologne assured him. "Shampoo! Come get this pack from Tofu and get Shi dressed in more then a long shirt! It's time to go home!"

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Your telling me this guy is your brother." The statement, it was phrased like a question but the tone of voice wasn't the least bit interrogatory, was made by Ritsu Mirakai. She, along with the Saotome's, sat in the living room of their home. 

"Yes. My father disowned him about a month before I married Genma, Hiokai was a taciturn and easily angered boy." Nodoka was slumped on either side of her. "He had started hanging out with some Yakuza thugs and my father wouldn't have it. When he got arrested the first time father bailed him out, then officially had him removed from the family register. 

"Man Grandpa didn't hold back!" 

Ritsu nodded. "No he didn't we at the Childs Services haven been seeking out his family for literally years! Your father had him erased from the family so bad we couldn't trace him!"

"Father always did do thing thoroughly." 

"When was the last time you saw him?"

Genma, sitting far from his son, spoke. "Twelve years ago." At Nodoka's surprised look he shrugged. "I know your father would throw a fit if he knew you met your brother so I didn't let him in the house."

"What was he there for?" 

"He was getting married." Nodoka glared. "Your father knew before I did! Those two's relationship make me and Ranma look touchy feely. I did, however, give him money for the wedding. They were planning a plain civil ceremony without rings he'd said. You'd have not forgiven me if I didn't help him a little." 

"Is that the time you said you bought Ranma a savings bond?"

"Yep." 

"Geesh, mom. Ya bought that?"

"No. I thought he went out drinking with Soun." 

"Would have been my guess to." Ukyo, who'd been allowed to stay, said. "You know, in a tragic sort of way, that was very noble Genma."

"Yeah. By the way, mom says we're loaded so what's up with the stealing and fiancee' crap, old man?" Ranma asked, off the subject but curious.

"That's my fault." Nodoka admitted. "I refused to let him use any of the family's money for the training trip. I'd hoped it would make him return periodically."

"Oh." 

"Well, either way this makes things easier." Ritsu pulled a pair of folders from her briefcase. "I can hand custody over to you as foster parents and these papers we talked about, for official adoption, should go through just fine now. We just need the Clan head to sign." 

"Is that grandpa?" Ranma asked. Ritsu looked surprised while Nodoka looked sheepish. "What?"

"I was, well, afraid to tell you Ranma, but your the clan leader, Father gave it to me about a year before you came back into my life, and I passed it to you on your last birthday."

"Why were you afraid to tell me?"

"She probably thought you'd disown your Jackass of a father." Ukyo said with a chuckle. 

"Actually its because you can, sort of, overrule your father's decisions." 

Ranma didn't get it, but Ukyo understood and made a small "Oh." 

"What?"

"She means you can reverse his deals... Like the engagements."

"Oh..." 

_________________________________________________________________________________

Hiokai shivered. He usually did when Wakari Troika entered the room. The burly man looked at Hiokai. "What news?"

"She learned the technique you asked me to teach her, but she got away. The people who have her now are a bit tougher then average and I'll need more power to get her back." He replied, trying not to show his terror. He knew this man could, and would, kill him given half a reason to.

"That is fine. She will need the time to recover from the Neko-ken, so go train. Return in three months for further orders."

"Yes... Yes sir." The scared man replied, then his curiosity made him ask. "Why do you want her to be so powerfully trained? Seems a bit much for a wife. What exactly does your employer want?"

"That does not concern you. Your only concern should be training to take the bride to be back. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Then leave!" Troika turned away, even as the black clothed fighter left, and stepped back into his office. Lifting a phone he dialed from memory. "Lord Hakama. It is as you said it would be. He lost the girl but can't seem to get her back."

_"I expected as much, but who has her is what worries me. The fates of many around her seem so chaotic to my visions."_

"How can that be?"

_"It is not hard, my friend."_ Lord Hakama replied. _"It means she has found people who have the will and power to shape their own destiny. A shocking, disturbing, and strangely reliving discovery."_

"Relief? I don't understand."

_"I feared none would challenge what is coming, and that would have been... Dull."_

AN: Here ya go, it's even longer then usual. Any questions?


	8. One Week Later

Disclaimer: Ranma and the cast aren't mine, except Himeko and Shi... But they have so many Takashi themes inside of them I can't really wrest total control from the Goddess. 

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter Seven

"Hop down, Himeko." Tofu gestured to the floor as the young girl hopped down. "Your injuries have all healed nicely except for that rib. Its knitted but won't be a hundred percent for a week or so longer."

"Can she start working out again?" Ranma asked. "She's been badgering me to let her." He chuckled at the girl's blush.

"I suppose, but none of the full contact sparing you all seem to love. Keep it to kata and low intensity sparing."

"Cool! Now maybe you'll show me that Katchu Tenshin Ameriguiken." She chirped. 

Ranma looked the girl over with a critical eye, and was slightly amazed at what he saw. In the short span of a week she had filled out considerably, gaining at least five pounds and loosing her bony, pale complexion. This in spite of eating like a bird in Ranma's opinion, who didn't realize it, was about normal for a girl her age and size. 

Her hair was much cleaner and Nodoka had taken her to a beauty parlor for a trim and style, giving her auburn head, which was a shade or two more red then Nodoka's, and nice cut that framed a cute face. Ranma figured she'd be giving the fiancee brigade a run for their money in a year or two looks wise. 

Socially Himeko had managed to open up quite a bit around the band of crazed extroverts known as "The Nerima Wrecking Crew", and she got along with Shi when she was human very well. 

Granted she was as terrified of cats as Ranma, but he didn't see a problem with that himself. 

She did still get quiet when people yelled, and burst into tears when Akane malleted him on one occasion. Ranma still thought the scene of Akane apologizing to her, him, and at one point her MALLET was just about worth getting hit! And on the plus side she hadn't pulled her mallet since, even for Kuno.

Of course, watching Ryoga try to challenge him while not yelling or cussing was also kind of funny. The pig-boy had even forgotten why he was challenging Ranma in the first place!   
"We'll look into it. I have some idea's for teaching it that doesn't involve third degree burns."

"Yay!" She jumped up and down, causing both men to smile. She was definitely related to Ranma. 

"Well doc, we have plans to meet Shampoo and Shi for ice cream, so unless you need to poke and prod me we have to run."

"Go and have fun, you two. I'll prod you next time you get yourself injured."

"Thanks doc." Ranma said with a grin. 

Outside Ranma hopped up onto a fence, then leaned down, offering Himeko a hand. "Come on! You want to train so we'll work on balance." He winked and held his hand out patiently, waiting. 

The girl, for her part, nervously took his hand and hopped up onto the fence. Ranma nodded as she landed well balanced and ready on the fence top. "Good. You won't have any trouble though I wouldn't suggest doing this in one of the skirts my mom got ya."

"What are we doing?" Himeko asked.

"You ever play tag when you were younger?"

"Yeah." The young teenager nodded.

Ranma grinned and tapped her on the forehead. "Tag, your it! And no touching the ground!" He flipped away and landed not to far away down the fence.

Himeko, concentrating on her excellent balance, walked towards Ranma who let her get close before hopping away again. "Ya can't walk to play tag! Run a little, I know you can do it!"

Himeko went after Ranma again, the pig tailed boy hopping away each time she got close, gently teasing her into picking up the pace until she was running and jumping with abandon. Ranma, smiling at the giggles from the not ordinarily care free girl, and decided it was time to turn things around, and faked a stumble, letting her 'catch' him.

"Well, I guess I'm it. I'll give you a three-second head start. One... Two... Three!" She was already running down the fence. "Remember to head for the restaurant!" He called after her as he gave chase. 

This time, he was 'trying' to tag her, and pushed her awareness and reflexes to the limits with his 'near misses.' Both young martial artists were laughing by the time they reached the Nekohatten. Ranma led her inside, congratulating Himeko on 'winning'. 

"Hello son-in-law, hello Himeko. How are you both today?" Cologne asked, pogoing out of the kitchen. 

"Hello grandmother." Himeko said, politely bowing.

Ranma's "Hi ya." Was a bit more casual.

"So young lady, has the doctor released you to actually working here?"" Despite the stern sound of the statement, Cologne was smiling cheerfully. The 'work' in question was teaching Shi the martial arts, tiger kung fu seemed the best choice to the Amazon elder, and she knew Himeko wanted to 'work' too.

"Yes, though he said I couldn't really spar for a while still."

"That's fine. It'll give us time to get you back in shape. We still have a month before next semester starts and you girls have to start school."

"How's Shi's other studies going?" Ranma asked absently.

Cologne shrugged. "Vocally she speaks every language I do fairly well or at least at my skill level. She's also actually picked up Tofu's verbal history lessons fairly well."

"I sense a but."  
"Yes you do. Her reading is progressing, but slowly and her intrest in Math makes you look like a Mathematician, son-in-law. She just seems to grasp None, To little, enough, and too much and finds anything more redundant. The rest, honestly, her memory will be what keeps her up but I doubt she'll do a lot with the sciences."

"Heck, up to two weeks ago, she was a fur ball! She's doing pretty well from what you say."

Cologne nodded. "This is true."

Ranma looked around, then asked. "By the way, where is Mousse?" He had just realized he hadn't been attacked any of the several times he'd come to visit.

"Mousse has been in China. He went with Shampoo but family matters kept him from returning as planned. I'm expecting him to return next week."

"Okay. Not getting attacked every time I came around here was getting spooky."

Cologne just chuckled. "Shampoo and Shi are outside sparing. Don't keep her out to late, son-in-law, your bride to be has dinner rush, and this is the first day I've been able to use her for it!"

"Aw cut that out, ya old ghoul."

Cologne whacked him one, and hopped into the kitchen chuckling. 

Ranma and Himeko walked out the restaurants rear door, finding Shampoo dodging pounces and attacks from her kitten-daughter. Both Himeko and Ranma shuddered with a ghost of fear at the girl's cat-like movements but both quickly recovered. "Hey you two are we still going for ice cream?" Ranma called out over the two girls' grunts and heavy breathing. Ranma absently noted that, while Shi was obviously not as skilled as Shampoo that her speed and sense of balance surpassed her adopted mothers amazing agility. The tiny slip of a girl did suffer from a lack of reach, though, and Shampoo had no problem fending her off while not embarrassing or frustrating the young girl.

They both paused, glancing over to the two newcomers. Both smiled widely and seemed to blur for a moment.

"Airen come to take Shampoo on date?" Shampoo almost sang as she gripped him around the waist.

Beside them Shi had wrapped arms around Himeko's waist, though she was just hugging her friend lightly so she didn't hurt her friends sore ribs. "I am happy to see you Himeko!" She happily declared. 

"It's good to see you too! Dr. Tofu said I could train again, with you and Shampoo!" Himeko smiled, ignoring Ranma and Shampoo as the pig-tailed boy tried to pry her off. "I can't spar yet, but I can work out and learn. Ranma-sensei showed me how to run on fences like he does!" 

"I just learned how to do that too! Maybe we can play tag!" 

"That's even what he had me doing! I felt silly at first but it got to be fun after a while."

The kitten-girl shrugged. "It's fun to be silly, so don't worry about it."

"Hey girls! Come on! Ice cream!" Ranma called out.

Only ten minutes later they were all sitting in a nearby ice cream shop. "Shi, use your spoon! Please!" Shampoo pleaded. The cat girl looked at her, blinking in confusion. "You can't just tick your face in the dish!"

"Why not? It's fun!"

Ranma chuckled, next to the giggling Himeko as Shampoo wiped off the messy, younger girl's face. Shampoo spared them both a glare as she finished cleaning chocolate sauce from Shi's nose. "She still hasn't grasped the concept of utensils, eh?" The pig-tailed boy asked, while taking a bite of his own sundae. 

"No. She figured out for Ramen and soup, but if she no think it necessary, she no uses the utensils." Shampoo answered. She picked up Shi's spoon and slipped it into Shi's hand. "Shampoo wants daughter to try anyway."

"Yes mother." The girl muttered, and used the spoon effectively, if inexpertly. 

"So Himeko, I hear you say you can work out now, yes?"

"Doctor Tofu said so." 

"Then tomorrow Shampoo teaches you very special technique all teen women should know."  
Ranma perked at the suggestion of a new technique. "What's that?" Granted he was a guy but if he had to learn how to hook a bra as a girl, for which he still hadn't forgiven his mother proper or not, he should know this special technique. 

"The... AMAZON GLOMP!" Shampoo grinned from her new location in Ranma's lap, clutching him tightly.

"Hey! Now cut that out!" 

"Grrrrr...." The sound came from behind Ranma, and he groaned recognizing that growl anywhere. Turning he groaned again finding not just Akane, but Ukyo as well. Both were carrying shopping bags and neither looked to amused. 

"Now... You two... I told you we were taking the girls out for ice cream." Ranma stuttered. 

Akane glared, but then got a big smile, which caused Ranma to stand, ready to run away. "Really?"

"Um... Yeah?"

Shampoo, who had slipped out of the way of an expected hammer, looked on as Akane slipped closer to Ranma.

"The 'girls' eh?" Akane continued smiling like her slightly older sister while Ranma just nodded. She was really concentrating on a 'Skill' Nabiki had taught her in junior high. "I'm so glad to hear that."

"Um. You are?"

Akane nodded. "After all, Ukyo and I are girls, and ice cream sounds great after shopping!" She tapped Ranma's nose... with his own wallet! "Thanks for buying!" 

"Huh? Hey wait!" Akane and Ukyo both ran off for the counter, giggling. "Come on! I already lost a wallet last week! Give it back!"

Shampoo just shook her head, and returned to watching Shi and Himeko.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Across the street, unnoticed by the group, Troika watched them from an expensive Sushi parlor. The glass, mirrored for the customers' privacy, didn't block his sight, or any of his finely tuned extra senses. What he saw and felt made him frown. 

The most interesting, and disturbing he'd discovery he had made while following Himeko, was that the girl who had been beaten and abused in hopes of keeping her subservient had paired streaks of stubbornness and defiance running through her soul. This caused him to wonder about her appropriateness for the project. 

He was also shocked when he discovered she was weaker then most of the six people settled at her table. Not only did every one of the people there move with the grace of a martial artist, but the confidence of seasoned warriors who had fought and survived, even in the youngest girls movements.

The Ki of the young warriors told the tale. The Pig-tailed mans was the most powerful by far, with both the feel of a Neko-ken adept and of a man who'd killed in battle. The focus of his aura was astounding for one as young as he was, and Troika had to assume this man, little more then a boy, was at the very LEAST his equal, and thought he was probably the superior warrior. This in spite of Troika's two decades more experience. He did wonder at the strangely 'elastic' feel to the pig-tailed man's ki, as well as the large quantity of feminine ki.

The Lavender haired, Chinese girl was next in line by the standard of power. While she was completely out classed by her male tablemate, her power was easily in the top five percent of earths martial artists if not higher. Her Aura was also that of a blooded killer and had, of all things, noticeable traces of the Neko-ken! He hadn't even known that was possible and detected an interesting side effect to the technique. 

Her aura had the static, though fading, vestiges of one who'd reached their limit, beyond which they could not improve their power. The Neko-ken seemed to have pushed her off that ledge!

The two teen girls were tied for third. They were both well above the top ten percent of fighters in the world, and were capable of using their ki to a limited extent. They, like the lavender haired girl, were still focusing Ki into limbs and weapons though the longhaired girl had more structure then either of the other women. She, however, was the only one at the table with the defined feel of having reached her limit.

Troika absently decided she'd need to be kidnapped and put through a modified Neko-ken training to see if it would push her off as well. It might be worth doing to some of his own soldiers if it did. 

The blue haired girl next to her had a more powerful, if unfocused, aura and had the same elasticity, if less pronounced, as the lone man at the table. He'd have to investigate that later. 

Himeko, who had been so impressive before, had made a significant jump in power. She was at the point of competing with the tenth percentile as well, and showed no signs of leveling off in the near future. She also had the slight 'Shudder' of the onset of puberty, which her fathers brutal training and poor diet had postponed. Amazingly a week of rest and plentiful food had jump-started her development, though the intriguing boost in female ki was possibly also responsible. 

Next on the list, ignoring the salesman behind the counter, was the smallest girl. While, in comparison to her tablemates she was barely worth noticing, anywhere else she'd be impressive. Her aura, ALSO showing traces of the Neko-ken, was absolutely huge for a young girl and showed signs of instinctive use. She also had a remarkably feral feel, her emotions simple and easy to read even at this distance. It also had certain amoral neutrality he'd rarely encountered. He refined his assessment of that girl from warrior to predator. 

"Hiokai, you have a talent for making enemies." The large man muttered. 

AN: Okay, since I know I'm gonna get asked questions for THIS one, I'd just explain some things now, and save time. 

1: Why did Shampoo name the kitten-girl Shi? 

Defiance is part of it. They survived what no one should, and in some cases would want to, survive. The name is a bit of 'Whistling in the dark' to deny the terror they both wake up screaming from in the night. 

2: Is Ranma going to pair up with {Enter fiancee/villan/other person here}? Any of the fiancée's is fair game, though I honestly don't think there is a "One". I believe Ranma cares about all of them (Ignoring Kodachi) though at the end of the Manga I grant Akane was in the lead by a fair margin and at that point WOULD have been the one. However, my style tends toward examining "what if?" To a great degree. As a note, I plan to use Akane and Ukyo more later, but am going to develop Himeko and Shi a bit first. And no, time travel isn't involved... Yet. 

3: The Neko-Ken: My theory regarding the Neko-ken is fairly lengthy so if anyone wants to hear it ask, and I'll post it as an independent fic. The power limit boost is partly because of the earlier mentioned absorbing of cat spirit, and partly my theory as to why it existed long enough to BE banned. Most people who were trained as heavily as Ranma would reach their limit by the time they were ten, with Mostly technique refinement and MINOR power increases afterward. I've seen real, if less dramatic, examples of this by comparing Olympic athletes to others who train just as hard but never will compete. Most Gymnastic medallists are under sixteen.

The Neko-ken pushes past that barrier and increases the upward limit by a fair percentage. Otherwise the inventors would have chucked it before it became a 'legendary' technique, unless the liked having berserkers trying to kill them. 

As for Shi and Shampoo's aura, only part of what he saw are the curse's fault. They have essentially gone through 'Neko-ken light' which might be good, or might be bad. I don't know how much I'm going to play with this idea yet. 


	9. Getting Ready For School

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2, and am not making any money off of this. Though if someone wants to give me a job writing original stuff I'll be in the office Monday!"

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter Eight

"I am really not convinced this is a great idea." Ranma muttered, staring at the Nerima junior high school. "I mean Himeko's dad can get to her way to easy when she's here. At least at home or the Nekohatten he has to get through pop or the old ghoul, and I doubt Cologne would even work up a sweat."

"But I want to go to school!" Himeko, standing between Ranma and Nodoka. She was afraid she admitted to herself, but she really wanted a chance to make friends. She loved Shi but wanted someone to talk to about stuff that wouldn't be distracted by a piece of yarn. 

"Yeah, but it's not safe! What if your old man shows up, huh? You can't defend yourself!" 

Himeko, Nodoka saw while shaking her head, was getting very annoyed with Ranma. Ranma was wonderful with her, like a big brother with a beloved little sister, but when he thought something was 'dangerous' he'd get excessively overprotective. That, mixed with her son's ability to annoy anything with an X chromosome pair conspired to cause even the relatively passive Himeko to grow very angry.

Actually, she had once punted him into a wall like Akane or Ukyo were prone to doing. Ranma later said he wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

"Ranma dear, rather you wish her to go or not the child welfare department requires it." Nodoka explained, for the third time that day. 

"And Shampoo plans to visit school often, to keep Shi in line if nothing else." Shampoo, who along with Shi had accompanied the Saotomes to the special meeting with the Junior Highs principle said. They had been summoned 'due to problems with the girls records'. 

Ranma frowned. "Yeah, and pop said he'd be hanging around sometimes too. I'm just worried okay!"

"I am not a little kid, and if my father shows up I know better then to fight him. Isn't that why you've been running me over roofs and stuff?"

Shampoo giggled. "Saotome Special Technique!" 

"Oh! Can I learn the special technique too?" Shi asked, causing both adult women to start laughing outright. 

Ranma just glared and yelled "What?" while the girls watched in confusion.

"Sorry... son." Nodoka caught her breath. "But 'Run Away' isn't really a technique. Often a good idea, yes, but not really a special move." Shampoo just nodded in agreement while still laughing.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get this over with." He took a step forward just in time for a car to run through a puddle splashing him. "Oh come on! It hasn't even rained all week!" 

The women behind the now female Ranma all laughed as the young redhead opened a thermos she had up her sleeve. Thanks to one to many fights with Mousse she had picked up a little of the hidden weapons style. Without preamble she dumped the hot water over her head."

"Really." He muttered. "Ya don't have to laugh so..."

"CAT!"

He spun around and yelped when he spotted a small calico kitten at his feet. "C...CAT!" Both Ranma and Himeko took of running, fortunately heading towards the school. 

Sighing, Nodoka picked up Shi-neko and her clothes. "I'll get Shi some water, would you mind..?" She gestured after the fleeing pair.

"Yes. Ranma should keep better track of water." She said, bouncing after them, still giggling. 

__________________________________________________________________________________

I'm sorry Shi!" Himeko said. They were sitting between the group of adults on vinyl chairs waiting to see the principle. 

"Fine. Just stop running away from me! You know I wouldn't hurt you!" 

"I know... But when you're a cat..." the older girl shuddered.

"Maybe you can get used to Shi and Shampoo." Nodoka suggested. "I know how deep the fear goes, but maybe you can adapt to these two at the least. If you get caught in the rain or a hot drink gets spilled then you can help them out."

"How?" All four of the others, including Ranma, asked. 

"Let me think about it." Nodoka said. 

"The principal is ready to see you now." The secretary said, interrupting their conversation. The group rose and walked into the office. What they found froze Ranma and Shampoo, who hadn't read their letters very closely. "Ms. Hinako!" 

Hinako Niomia looked up from her desk with a big smile, her child like form as irredeemably cute as ever. "Hello Mr. Saotome! Hello Ms. Shampoo! Are you here to visit?"

"Um. No." Nodoka looked around the office. "Where's the principal."

"She is, probably mom." Ranma said. "She's that teacher Akane and me told you about."

'Oh... Okay." the older Saotome answered cautiously. "She'd learned to accept a lot over the years, and had long ago stopped doubting her son's wilder stories. Still, the girl looked Shi's age! "We're here because we got a call about Shi and Himeko's entrance exams?"

"Oh yeah, I remember! Did you know neither of them has been in school before? At least, not for very long."

"Yes. That's why they both had to take those tests."  
"Oh. Right. Well they both did well considering their lack of real education. My problem is, first, does anyone know Shi's real age?"

"Um... No?" Shampoo replied.

Hinako shrugged. "Okay." She moved on. "Why is Himeko listed as 'at risk of abduction' then? There aren't going to be aliens here are there? We can't have people flying around everywhere and electrocuting each other!" 

The sudden flipping of subjects, and rather strange commentary involving aliens, made Nodoka a little dizzy. "No... Um, it's because of her father..."

______________(AN: I am not typing that explanation again. You all read the first chapters anyhow)_____

"I can not believe such worthless scum as that actually exists! I'll drain his Ki dry then stick his shriveled butt in the post for Santa!" 

"Whoa..." Ranma muttered, watching Hinako's battle aura flare.

"Shampoo sense fighting spirit." the Amazon inadvertently quoted. 

Nodoka, nodding and somewhat awed, said "She's quite... descriptive isn't she." The two young girls just watched the teacher glow in amazement. 

"Very well then!" Hinako yelled, causing the others to jump. "Shi and Himeko will be in grade seven, class C! They have lunch when I'm watching and English in my class. I'll get that... That... That pooh head if he comes here!" 

"Wait! Shi's a bit young for that grade!" Nodoka said, then winced as she realized the kitten girl was likely only about five months old.

"But she scored higher then Himeko in everything but mathematics! Her English was fluent too!" 

"Well...that is true..." 

And no one seems to know her exact age, right? I'm sure she'll be fine! I expected a fight over Himeko being to old, actually." 

"Naw. She's gonna have to catch up. We all knew that."

"I don't mind." The girl said.

"Okay. Good then! What do you think Shi?" She smiled, then blinked when she realized the girl had fallen asleep. "Um... Right." She was feeling a nostalgic urge to drain Ranma at the moment, that reminding her of... something... but fought it off. "Well. Class starts Monday. See you then!" 

"Thank you Ms. Hinako. They will be here."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Hiokai Makashi jumped out of his tree, having watched the Saotome's and Amazons leave the school with his daughter. He had returned, knowing that the schools would open soon and that was the best place to grab his daughter. No one there would fight him when he came for her, at least not fight and win.

He had lucked out, hearing his older sister talking to his nephew while they were leaving the Saotome home. He over heard the name of the school, the public junior high to his relief since some of the private schools had decent security which could slow him down. He had tried to tail them, but had lost track thanks to a simple train separating them. He had then rushed directly to the school, arriving in time to see them run in apparently fleeing something. 

He had waited for his family to get out of sight, and took a chance to look over the grounds of the school, the entrances and exits before leaving the compound to check out possible escape routes. "Soon I'll have her back, and I can clean up the sloppy emotional crap they fed her." He muttered.

AN: First off, I know this one is a little short, and I'm sorry. I'm beginning a new arc the next chapter that will focus on the girls and their school friends, meaning I have to think up their school friends. To a certain extent this is going to be old flavor Ranma 1/2 (Senseless battles, one shape shifting curse SO FAR, ect...) but the 'Adult' cast is still going to be getting into adventures of their own. If anyone has suggestions for schoolmates I'm open for suggestions. Fair warning, I'm involving a Kuno! If a father can appear out of no where, then why can't a younger child eh?

I'm also thinking about a Hibiki, but I'm not sure what to do with that. 

Hope ya liked it! Keep reading, keep reviewing!


	10. Mr Panda's Revenge

Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Ranma1/2. I also don't own Sailor Moon which makes a small, not even actually a cameo, cameo...but hey, since I have several Sailor Moon fics it can't hurt to disclaim everywhere now can it!

****

Ranma-papa, Shampoo-mama

Chapter Nine

The weekend quickly passed and that Monday morning found Himeko, Shi, Shampoo and Ranma all at the front gates. Shampoo looked over Shi carefully, mentally cataloging what should be in her bag. Her uniform, a blue and white 'sailor suit' actually complemented the kitten-girls gray/brown/red hair which was done in a bun on the back of her head, with a long, loose tail spilling along her spine. "Shi behave for the teachers now."

"Yes mom."

Ranma glanced at Himeko and shrugged. Her own sailor suit looked horribly impractical to him. He didn't see how you were supposed to kick with any real height in something so short. Granted he was still trying to figure out why she had her hair done up in two odango-meatball-looking things but shrugged it off. Probably just something she saw in a magazine or something. "Have fun, and try not to sleep too much." Were his parting words of advice. The two girls then waved and entered the crowd of students entering the school, quickly finding the classroom.

"For it is written in the stars that I am the greatest, lest any were to doubt it!" They entered to find a girl posing dramatically, or melodramatically depending on your viewpoint, on a desktop. She held her psuedo-proud position until the crowd of boys and girls around her burst out laughing, at which point she grinned and bowed to her audience. 

"He did not!" One girl, still giggling, exclaimed.

"He did! One kendo match and he's all pompous and stuff." The girl yelled, also giggling. 

"Who?" Shi, confused and less tactful then Himeko, asked. The girl, brushing her straight black hair out of her face, glanced over. 

"Hey! New people!" She jumped up, flipping over the crowd easily, and landed in front of the two new girls. "My brother, Tatiwaki. My names Amara Kuno, who are you?"

"My name's Shi." Shi replied, trying to remember where that name was familiar from.

Himeko recognized the last name, but shrugged it off figuring Amara didn't seem insane enough to be one of THEM. "I'm Himeko M.... Saotome." She blushed, having nearly forgotten the change to her new family name. 

"Saotome... Saotome... Any relation to Ranma Saotome?"

"Um. He's my cousin... kinda..." Maybe she was related after all.

"It is GREAT to meet you! Your cousin drives my brother and sister both completely nuts!" she paused for a moment. "Not that that's much of a feat, mind you." She grinned then. "I'm buying you and your sister here lunches, okay!"

"Um... She's not my sister... actually." Himeko stuttered in the face of the open, happy aura Amara emanated, enervating to most and vaguely scary to an introvert like her.

"I almost am though." The kitten-girl was not inverted or introspective by nature so she liked the girl instantly. "Your 'Stick-boy' and 'crazy-girl's' sister?"

"Don't remind me. It's too painful to bear." She said, still grinning. 

A boy came up behind her then. "Watch out, you're flirting with danger here girls." The boy said, winking a brown eye at them from under his glasses lens. "This here is the 'Prank Queen' of Nerima! Banished from three private schools and expert trap maker of the Kuno Mansion!"

"Shucks Kaji, you're embarrassing me." Amara said, through clenched teeth.

The brown haired boy chuckled. "But ignoring that, she's a great gal. I, by the way, am Kenji Jusahara. I'm the school papers star reporter!"

"And the schools premier hacker. If you need to know, he'll find the information for a price."

"Hey, I'm reasonable! I'm not Nabiki Tendo-sama, I just ask for favors!"

"I thought it was a million yen OR a favor."

"Naw, that's just for you, Kuno-chan."

Himeko and shi giggled as Amara stomped on his foot firmly. "So aren't you a little young to be here Shi?"

Shi just shrugged. "Probably." 

When it was apparent Shi wasn't going to elaborate Amara shrugged her own slim shoulders. "Well then! You two can sit next to me since hacker-boy here decided to move."

"Hey! No I..."

She cut him off. "Let's be friends, cool?" She grinned. "I promise, any jokes I play are merely meant to entertain, and if anything bothers you I'll apologize through relentless use of ice cream...and I WON'T invite you to my house unless we become mortal enemies."

"Works for me." Shi replied while Himeko smiled and nodded. "Great. Here comes the teacher, we'll talk at lunch!"

_____________________________________________________________________________

Hiokai smiled when he saw his daughter along with the Chinese girl's brat and another girl. "Well it's about time." He muttered, getting ready to jump over the wall. A heavy hand falling on his shoulder brought him up short, though. 

"Dishonored or not, you're my wife's brother so I'll give you the option of just leaving Genma Saotome said from behind the skinny man. 

"Thanks brother-in-law, but... I'll pass!" Hiokai yelled the last part as he drove his foot back into Genma's stomach, knocking the bigger man back with a grunt. Genma growled like his cursed form and countered with a forward stomp kick to the little mans spine, driving him in to the brick wall. Never one to confuse a street fight with fair play, he followed up by driving a fist into Hiokai's kidney while he was still stunned. 

Unfortunately for Genma, he was tougher then he looked, and drove a rough elbow into his brother-in-laws head. Genma stumbled down the length of the wall a few paces, but blocked the punch-punch-kick combo the small man delivered, retaliating with a foot sweep but missing when Hiokai hopped away. 

"Razor Wind!" Hiokai yelled, swinging his open hand across and up as if slapping an invisible foe. Dozens of tiny ki blades flew out, nicking Genma in a dozen different places and shredding his gi. 

"Nice trick!" Genma growled. "Now try mine!" He yelled, delivering twin Yama Sen Ken vacuum blades, the glowing planes of energy striking the ground to each side of the black clothed man, with dozens of jagged rocks.

Hiokai stumbled out of the dust, and searched for Genma shocked to find him apparently gone! He sensed the presence behind him only and instant before Genma's fist connected with his spine again, launching him into the sky. "Ha! Have to get up pretty early in the morning to top Genma!" He crowed. 

That of course is when a section of sidewalk decided to give way, and to bust a water main.

Genma-panda looked at the sky and growlfed in an ursine plea to know what he did to deserve THAT, then he walked over and lifted the packages he'd been carrying before spotting Hiokai.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"... And not only does she have a giant alligator as a pet, but she calls it Mr. Green Turtle! Can you believe that?" Amara asked, then jumped in shock when a giant panda approached the three girls.

It held out two boxes and held up a sign in it's other paw. [Nodoka sent cookies...] it flipped over the sign [share them with your friends.]

"Thank you, Mr. Panda." The two new girls said as he gave each a box, then turned to lumber away. 

"Um... I suppose you might..." Amara muttered.

AN: Ha! Thought I'd just have another crazy Kuno, din'cha! Nope! Amara's the 'sane' one, though she IS the real person to blame for a lot of the traps in Kuno mansion. Granted it's the family ninja's that make them lethal later, but I digress.

As for the Genma fight, what do ya think? And yes I know I 'said' Genma was weaker the Hiokai but that was Hiokai making the judgment. HE doesn't hold back while sparing, so it didn't occur to him that Genma WOULD. Genma is a martial artist capable of training someone like Ranma AND with a fair array of Ki techniques after all! Genma, for all his faults, is one hell of a fine fighter. As for using the sealed techniques, I don't really see Genma holding back when he just got Ki-whacked. He doesn't have that clearly defined a sense of honor.... No puns about what honor. He's the hero for once, so give him SOME credit! Just not too much.

As for the cookies, Nodoka informed him that she would give him cookies when he got home, but if she found out the girls didn't get their boxes, she'd put the hurt on him. She isn't STUPID folks!


	11. Bullies

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2. If ya thought I did though, I must be better at this writing stuff then I thought.

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter Ten

Four days after starting school the girls were already settled in. Amara had been a great help to them, and as it turned out was somewhat new herself after being tossed out of St. Herebeke's junior high school. While unclear as to why she had been dismissed, Shi had heard her mutter something about the Gym looking better that way.

The three girls ate lunch together, sometimes joined by Kaji when he wasn't busy rooting around for information about something or other. That day Shi was running a little late, having been caught by the teacher who needed help hanging a few notes. Still she was only a couple of minutes late, and had her lunch in hand. 

She grunted when someone suddenly shoved her as she exited the building. 

Turning in annoyance, she found a large boy she recognized from her class smirking at her. Two smaller, though still big, boys stood with him. "Do you need something?" She asked, exasperated. 

"Yeah, genius girl, we do! Give us your lunch!" The bigger boy, Shiro she recalled, demanded. 

Shi blinked up at him, twice, and asked "Why in the world would I give you my lunch after you shoved me?"

Shiro frowned, confused both by her lack of fear and the fact that that sounded like a serious question and not sarcasm. He growled and stepped forward, looming over her. "Because if you don't I'll pound you into the..." 

His voice, which had turned suddenly to a higher pitch, had been cut off by Shi's punch. The punch that, as every male in the area couldn't help but notice, had been delivered below the belt. Shi shrugged as he slumped to the ground on his knees and turned to walk away. 

Shiro, gasping for breath, yelled "Get her!" Through his pain, and his two cronies moved to attack the smallest girl in their class.

_________________________________________________________________________________

"Oh no!" Amara exclaimed, startling Himeko, when she looked up from her lunch with wide eyes.

"What!"

"Shiro Hoto is threatening Shi!" Amara pointed and Himeko turned to look, just in time to witness him try to threaten her by looming over her, and Shi's... Enthusiastic enforcement of her personal space. 

"She doesn't seem to be feeling real threatened." Himeko giggled, but stopped when two other boys attacked her from behind. "No!" Himeko was up and running in an instant, unaware of Amara behind her.

Shi, across the schoolyard, grunted when she got kicked from behind. Rolling as she fell, she was on her feet and ready to fight before the second thug could take a shot. Even though Shi knew she was better then either boy individually, together they quickly had her on the defensive. Privately the kitten had to admit they were at least competent martial artists.

Then Himeko joined the fray, a flying back fist dropping her target. Shi yelled "Thanks!" And turned to the other boy only to find him cowering at the feet of a staff wielding Amara. "Where the heck did you get that?" She asked, Himeko nodding and wondering the same thing.

"Oh, well the Kuno family fortune DOES have its uses." Amara grinned, depressing a button and letting the extendible metal rod clink down to a foot from its five-foot length. "Like providing it's 'scions' with toys." She slipped it into a sheath under her long hair which slid down her back, and showed them how it was concealed by her blouse. 

"Neat." Shi muttered, then considered the boys, and the three unattended school bags near the fight area. "Those yours?" She asked the coward, ignoring the other two, groaning boys. 

"Yeah, why?"

The cat-girl calmly walked to the bags, opened them, and removed the lunch bentos inside. "There. Consider this a lesson about attacking your betters. Stupid males." She stalked off, the other two girls looking at each other and shrugging before following her. 

Shiro just continued to groan.

When they were back at they're usual lunch spot Shi looked at the other two girls. "I could have taken the, but thanks anyway. This way I get to eat lunch." Leaning towards Amara she grabbed both her shoulders and kissed her on both cheeks, and spoke in Chinese. "*I name you my Shield Sister and as see you as an Amazon in my eyes.*"

"Did I join the French Foreign legion and no one tell me?" Amara asked, stunned.

"Kinda." Shi grinned. "I named you my shield sister. Now you're kind of like an Amazon without actually being one. It also means that if we have a challenge fight for some reason, and you win, I won't have to kill you."

"Hey! Why haven't you done that to me?"

"Himeko, you're entire family are considered Amazon through marriage. The outsider laws don't apply to you."

'Who's married to an Amazon?" Himeko asked, then blinked when Shi stared at her. 

_______________________________________________________________________________

"What do you mean Married!" Ranma demanded, staring at Himeko, Shi, and the girl with them. Absently he thought she looked familiar, but shrugged it off.

Shi looked at Ranma, as well as Nodoka and Genma. "You really don't know?" At the shaking of their heads, Shi scratched her head. "I wonder why Great Grandma didn't explain it to you yet. Oh well." She shrugged. "When an outsider male defeats an Amazon, outside of war or similar conditions, the woman must catch him within a year and marry him."

"It's been more then a year."

"But you stated an intent to have a relationship with mother with in that year, which meant she had technically 'caught' you."

"I never did!"  
"The Reversal Jewel." Genma muttered. As much as this situation bothered him, he had to admit it was funny to watch. It wasn't even really his fault either!

"Oh hell." The pig tailed boy moaned.

Shi nodded. "The laws also say that the male and female in question are considered legally married if he saves her life."

"Oh hell." Ranma muttered again.

Nodoka spoke up. "What about Akane-Chan?"

"From what great grandma explained Akane and Ukyo are confusing and frustrating the heck out of the Elders in China. They were apparently going to insist the engagements were nullified in spite of provisions in the law that allows previous wives/fiancees, but only one per male. Then you beat Saffron."

"Yeah? So?"

"Well, the Elders didn't want to piss off someone who kills gods."

"Shi!" Nodoka said. "Watch your language."

"Yes Grandmother." Shi replied the continued. "The Elders have ordered that since you've defeated and saved all of them that... Why are you hitting the table with your head?"

"You're about to say 'You're married to all of them' right?" Ranma asked, pausing in his self-abuse.

"Um... Yeah. Great Grandma just hasn't told you yet for some reason... I... Guess." 

"Man, he's not half as happy as my brother would be." Amara said, while Himeko tried to slip a pillow under Ranma's head. Genma was patting his son on the back, actually feeling guilty. Three fiancee's was fine, but three wives!

He was irresponsible sure, but not sadistic!

Nodoka, for her part, was busy with her happily fulfilled dream of being called "Grandmother"

____________________________________________________________________________

In the Nekohatten Cologne felt a cold shiver run up her spine. "That reminds me. I was going to by more insurance for the restaurant today."

Authors Notes!  
  
Take That! Muwahahahahhahaha

Seriously though, it occurred to me that if the Amazons kept laws on the books for thousands of years, they were probably still okay with the Polygamy common in ancient china. It settles the fiancee issue, by making it WORSE!


	12. Married at last!

Ranma-papa, Shampoo-mama  
  
Chapter Eleven  
  
"Old Ghoul! Where are you?" Ranma yelled, ignoring his mother, Akane, Ukyo, and Genma. The two girls were trying to find out why Ranma had dragged them to the Nekohatten, While Nodoka was trying to urge Ranma to be more polite and genma was just refusing to answer any questions. Cologne soon hopped out of the resturant on her walking stick and considered the group of adults. They were soon joined by Soun Tendo and the three younger girls.   
  
"Hello Son-in-law. And you too Shi and Himeko, who's your friend?"  
  
"I'm |Amara Kuno, elder Cologne, but I really think I'm the least of your worries." Amara replied.   
  
"Yeah! Hey wait... Did you say Kuno?" Ranma blinked at Amara, then shook off the surprise. "Thats not important. What's important is I hear you have something to tell me, eh Cologne?"  
  
"What ever do you mean, son-in-law?" Cologne asked, then realized that Shi hadn't come straight home from school, and was hiding under a very worried looking Genma. "Shi, what did you tell them?"  
  
"Oh yeah, granny. The cat let everything out of the bag." Ranma Declared. "So how long till you were planning on kidnapping Akane and Uchan and running for China?"  
  
"At least another few weeks."  
  
"What?" Ranma wasn't sure if he was more shocked by the old woman's candid answer, or the fact that she looked more amused then annoyed.  
  
The girls weren't shocked, just angry. "Now hold on just a minute..."  
  
"I'm kidding girls!" Cologne yelled, chuckling. "But from your responses I'm guessing son-in-law hasn't explained it to you yet." She glared at shi and continued. "Of course I had planned to tell you under more controlled circumstances."  
  
Shi stared back at her great-grandmother, unblinking and with a shrug. "You didn't say it was a secret great-grandmother." In spite of her position behind the panda man, she didn''t seem very intimidated.  
  
Cologne shook her head. "Teaches me to try and stare down a cat. Everyone sit down, and you should get Shampoo too, Shi." The smallest girl nodded, and ducked into the kitchen. "Ms. Kuno, are you part of that family?"  
  
"I'd deny it if it would make it true."  
  
Cologne raised an eyebrow. "Was that a yes or a no?"  
  
"Yes I am, but if it helps I'll refrain from laughing maniacly or misquoting Shakespeare. I already know everything anyway."  
  
"Then I suppose you're going to tell them everything then."  
  
Cologne was now both convinced Amara was a Kuno, since no one could confuse her like that family, and that she was definately going to be annoying if she WAS thrown out. "You do know your brother and sister both have... issues with Ranma, correct?"  
  
"With two people by that name actually." Amara shrugged at the odd looks she got, misinterpruting them. |"I'm not kidding! They say they know both a man and a woman by that name and either hate or 'love' one or the other! If they didn't have pictures, I'd assume they had both gotten a hit from one of Kodachi's experiments."  
  
"There aren't two people... Amara was it?" Ranma explained. "They are always talking about me."  
  
"Okay, Mr. Saotome, you're cute as all get out, but you sure as heck aren't a busty red-head."  
  
Ranma considered explaining, then shrugged and walked over to a hose lying next to the door. He let the cool water settled inside the hose fall onto his head, turning to look at Amara as his hair and height changed. "See?" Ranma-chan asked, wringing out her pigtail.  
  
Amara stood and stared at Ranma, then proceeded to pull a digital camera from her bag and shot a picture of her face, checked her pulse, and swabbed the inside of her mose, dropping the swab into chemicals that she got out of nowhere. "Strange. I don't SEEM to be under the effects of anything of Kodachi's."  
  
"It's true Amara." Himeko said. "She was cursed at a place called Jusenkyo. She changes gender with hot or cold water."  
  
"That's strange." Amara said, not completely convinced and not bothering to hide it.  
  
Shampoo choose that moment to walk in, carrying a small tray with water and tea with Shi trailing behind her. She wasn't watching where she was going and tripped over Amara's bag. The drinks predictably spilled on the wrong persons.  
  
"CATS!"  
  
"HELP!"  
  
"Meow?"  
  
"Meow!"  
  
"Okay, now I believe it. I think."  
  
Mr. Panda held up a sign reading [You're handling this well.]  
  
"I live with... Well okay NEAR my family. That's going to give you a flexible view of reality."  
  
[Good Point.]  
  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________  
  
"You're telling us that, by Amazon law, we are ALL married to Ranma?" The person asking, Akane, couldn't hide her incredulity. Ukyo was basically speachless, and just nodded at the question.  
  
"Yes, and by law you and your families are also now Amazons, though obviously we aren't expecting you to start following the laws completely for several months."  
  
"Right. So what does this mean for my sister?" Amara, who Ranma had finally decided looked like a happy, rational Kodachi, asked.  
  
"She was not an 'Official' fiancee', so I am sorry to say she isn't included in the ruling."  
  
"What if we didn't WANT to be included?" Akane demanded.  
  
"You divorce him. While a Male getting a divorce is very difficult in most circumstances, you can simply petition an elder to hear your case." Cologne raised an eyebrow. "Wanna divorce?"  
  
"Um. I... Didn't say that..." Akane stuttered, amusing several people at the table. The exception was Ranma, whose head pounding on the table had become something akin to white noise to the rest of the crew.  
  
"But Polygammy is illegal in both Japan and China." Nadoka said. "||I don't actually have an issue with this solution, since it does retain everyones honor and my son is certainly manly enough, but it's not LEGAL."  
  
"Not in the People's Republic of China or Japan, no. However, by long standing tradition and the loss of a Chinese tank division to unarmed 'Peasants' the Jusenkyo area is treated in a way theoretically similar to a Native America reservations in the United States. We have a bit more political and social independance but we don't get benefits from the Chinese public services so it's an imperfect example from what Keith, an American who married into the tribe, said once." Cologne chuckled. "Basically, in the tribe, it's legal.  
  
"It's a wonder they have never gone back on that agreement." Nodoka said thoughtfully.  
  
"Only their hairdressers know for sure." Shampoo grinned, getting a dirty look from Akane. "It does clear split ends, true Akane?"  
  
"Yeah, whatever."  
  
"So what does this mean for me?" Amara asked, prompting all eyes turning to her. |"Shi made me her sheild sister, whatever that means."  
  
"Oh!" Cologne chuckled. "Welcome to the tribe then! You, like them, aren't required to be that aware of the laws yet, and will get to be immune to some of them unless you decide to become a full member."  
  
"Cool. I can go to China next time I run away from home!" She seemed unervingly happy, and serious, about that.  
  
"Yes, well, be that as it may... I just want to be sure... Akane and Ranma are married?" Soun asked nervously.  
  
"Yes." Cologne said, hopping back away from the Tendo Patriach when he started wailing, apparently in joysince he started waving fans in the air.  
  
"Oh come on! It can't be as easy as this!" Ranma declared. "And how come you didn't tell us Shampoo?"  
  
"Ranma no wonder why Shampoo be nice to Ukyo and Akane lately? No call Kitchen Destroyer or Spatula girl lately." Ranma, Akane and Ukyo blinked, realizing she HAD been using their real names alot lately. "Shampoo no tell because Great Grandma say not to. Shampoo am not happy with all that, either, but is better then fighting forever."  
  
"I have to agree with that." Ranma grudgingly admitted. "But it CAN'T be this easy."  
  
"Well, there is one more thing."  
  
"Ah Ha!"   
  
"You may now kiss the brides!: Cologne said formally, but with a huge, scary grin on her face. The girls eyes widened, and all locked on Ranma.  
  
Ranma, in a fit of cleverness, nocked a cup of tea on Shi. "Ah! A cat! Must flee!"  
  
As Ranma and his three brides ran out the door Himeko looked at Shi. "He does realize that the tea had gotten cold, right?"  
  
The damp, and still human cat-girl just sat there and fumed.  
  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________  
  
One hour later Ranma limped into the Saotome home and colapsed on the couch, exhausted. Nodoka, walking out of the kitchen, grinned at the amount of lipstick covering his face. "Have fun?"  
  
Ranma groaned, and passed out.  
  
AN: Who missed me?  
  
Okay, I couldn't resist making the Financee mess worse. It's funny and yeah, I claimed it wouldn't be Ukyo but I couldn't help myself! As for the hairdresser comment, if you don't know, I really don't know how to help you. 


	13. Heroics, Perversions, and Lost Boys, oh ...

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter Twelve

"How dare you interfere, Old Man!" The huge man yelled in German, clutching a hand-and-a-half sword tightly in one meaty fist. His booted feet clanked against the steel of the girder he stood on. The Parisian skyline lit the night all around him, and the Eiffel Tower where he was fighting a loosing battle. 

"How dare I not, you whelp? You want to rampage across Europe, stealing and fighting on your own, that's fine. But dragging a child along and putting her through the hell you call 'training' is something entirely different!" The wizened, ancient, and angry voice flowed from the shadows surrounding him. "And explain how you got the idea of dropping your daughter off of high places was a good idea? Your name doesn't translate to Dark Horse does it?"

"It toughens her up!" The German growled. "And that's what he demands, not that I have to explain it to you." He drew a throwing dagger from his coat, and located the only visible target on the structure. A young girl, bound and crying, was hanging from a rope ready to be dropped. "Erik VonDruchtner need answer to no one!"

He threw the knife, severing the rope figuring that would draw out his invisible opponent. He didn't realize the old man was behind him until he yelled "NO!" And struck VonDruchtner in the kidneys, sending him too into space and falling towards the French soil. 

The blur that had struck so quickly and brutally followed the two falling Germans, powerful legs and ki pushing him towards the ground at Meteoric speeds. A withered, ancient hand grabbed the girls bonds half way to the road surface while another slipped into a worn purple gi, withdrawing what for all the world looked like a simple firecracker. 

"I've been around that ungrateful whelp Ranma to long." Happosai muttered as he rolled in mid air, putting himself between the ten-year-old and the ground. "Happo Fire Burst!" He yelled, throwing the bomb at the ground, directly beneath HIM.

It exploded with them only thirty feet from the ground, slowing them to the point where the Grand Master of Anything Goes could land safely. Erik VonDruchtner was not so lucky, hitting seconds later. 

Happosai set the young girl down, noting that while she had fainted she'd be all right for a small time, and walked over to the gasping and groaning man. "Where's her mother Erik? Let me take her home."

"No... He demands... Mother dead..." 

"Who is this HE?" Happosai demanded "For your soul boy, tell me!"

"Go to hell..." VonDruchtner said, then with a sigh he took his own advice. 

Happosai grunted in frustration, and lifted the mans sword, a family heirloom, and noted the broken blade. "Good thing Europeans value their hilts, and not the blades." He muttered, napping the rest off and returning to the girl. "Well, Elizabeth VonDruchtner looks like you're stuck with me. Don't worry, I'll get you some Japanese steel for this sword. I hope you appreciate what I'm doing for you. The opening speeches are done by now.

Sighing, he lifted her and hopped off towards down town Paris. "At least the Paris International Lingerie and Swimwear exposition has three more days on it. Yippee!" 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"Amara, don't take this the wrong way, but I've heard actual horror stories about Kuno mansion! Why would we visit, much as we do love you." Himeko said, looking over her bento at her friend. Shi was busy doing something disturbing (i.e. Cat like) with a butterfly.

Amara shook her head. "No, no, no. I want you to visit my house, not the Mansion. Heck Hime-chan, I don't visit the Mansion except for the gymnastics and kendo lessons the two idiots insist I take."

Himeko frowned. "This isn't a set up like when you asked me to 'help' you to the nurses office, is it?"

"You act like no one ever died your hair blue before." Amara muttered. "Besides, it washed out last night, didn't it?"

"True. I still think having an automated system for tying people down is a bit... Um..."

"Please don't say 'insane'." Amara pleaded. Shi had called her insane after an incident involving all the boys uniforms being replaced by girls after a gym class, and it had taken an hour to get her to stop crying.

Unfortunately that was exactly what Himeko was about to say when she caught herself. "No! Extreme! That's what I was going to say!"

"Oh... Well maybe it is a little, but you looked good with blue hair." She shrugged. "And no, I give my word. I just want ya'll to spend a weekend. There are ninjas to wait on your every command..."

"I'll ask Ranma, and Shampoo won't mind I'm sure. They might want to check it out, though."

"That's fine. So what movies should we..."

"Where the heck AM I NOW!" Interrupted her. All three girls looked up to find a boy, their age, yelling at the sky. He obviously was oblivious to the watching girls, and didn't hear Shi's growl as the butterfly flew away, frightened by the noise. 

The Cat-girl stalked up to him, angry. "What's your problem?"

"Huh?" The young man turned and looked at Shi, and his jaw dropped. Himeko and Amara swore they saw little hearts in his eyes. 

"Should we save him?"

"No." Amara replied. "I'm fond of having all my limbs."

Shi ignored her friends, tapping a foot while waiting for the boy's answer. "Well? Why did you yell, huh?" In the back of her mind, she couldn't help but think he was strangely familiar.

"I'm... Um... I'm kinda lost." The boy answered. "I'm Mike Hibiki."

Shi blinked, and examined the obviously full-blooded Japanese boy carefully. "Mike?"

"The guy who delivered me was named Mike. Mom said he ran a weather research station in Alaska... or was that San Francisco..." he shrugged, figuring there couldn't be that much difference. "I'm named after him. What's your name?"

"Shi Laun." Shi replied. "Why did you have to yell, and scare off my butterfly?"

"Sorry, it's kinda a... Family tradition."

"That's for sure." Himeko muttered. Unlike her friend she had recognized the boy, and smiled when he looked over at her. "Do you have a relative named Ryoga?"

"You mean my big brother IS still alive?" Mike asked. "Sweet!" 

Both Shi and Himeko blinked at the boys rather cheerful demeanor. They both knew Ryoga, and the depressed boy's general attitude. "You thought he was dead?"

"Well, last I saw him... We were a couple of years younger and searching for food in mom and dads room. He said he had sworn revenge on some guy and I hadn't seen him since." Mike shrugged. "We usually bump into each other every few months or so, so I was a little worried."

"Hey, we know some places he is around, semi-frequently. We could take you there and see if he's around." Himeko offered.

"That would be great!"

"So we're going to lead him around by the hand all day?"

"If it's you, that's no hardship for me." Mike smiled, then blinked when Shi and Himeko face faulted. "Do they react to all flirting that way? And, for that matter, doesn't that hurt?"

"I... Don't think so." Amara asked, equally amazed.

Shi got up, growling. "How dare you flirt with me! I'm angry with you!"

"Um... Why?"

"You sacred my butterfly!" Shi yelled.

"Are you still upset about that? It happened like, five minutes ago."

"Yes!"

Amara and Himeko just sighed. Shi had many good traits, such as usually being very friendly and outgoing, cheerful, funny, and to Colognes surprise, smart. Unfortunately she shared traits with her 'cursed' form (Shi doesn't actually care what people called her being a cat, and it was easier then explaining that being HUMAN is a curse.) such as a tendency towards distraction and a psychological need to run things into the ground, be it physically or mentally. Adding to the problem was the fact that there was no predicting her "Catty" behavior, as Amara had dubbed her moods. Obviously, she was in one of them.

Amara turned away from the arguing pair in favor of the rarely argumentative Himeko. "So, you want to bring soda, or chips?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Hiokai smiled as the girls left their school without an escort. Himeko, plus two girls and two boys, exited the school and turned towards the Nekohatten and the black gi'd Martial Artist followed them, planning.

He very clearly remembered the beating Genma had given him, and had began training in earnest to beat his brother-in-law. It had occurred to him, however, that they would likely grow less vigilant if he didn't try anything for a while, and he had carefully observed the girls over the month since the fight. Sure enough, the adults had began assuming he wasn't coming back. About a week ago they were left, apparently unescorted, but Hiokai hadn't risked trying anything. Yet.

He had spotted Ranma tailing them from the rooftops, but that was several days ago. Now, Hiokai decided, was the time. He followed the children for a couple of blocks, and chose to attack thought he simple expedient of dropping into the group of them and kicking his daughter in the chest.

Himeko gasped in pain, and flew back into Kaji, her chest exploding with the unexpected pain. Kaji managed to catch her and land on his back relatively unharmed, but still groaned from the unexpected impacts. 

Hiokai grinned viciously, sure that he had disabled the biggest threat, when Shi howled in rage and drove a punch into the older mans gut. Hiokai, who had not expected an attack, grunted and stumbled back. He stared in shock as the group of helpless children suddenly sprouted weapons ranging from a fairly conventional staff, to obscure bonbori's, to unusually weighted umbrella's and strangest of all... Sharpened CD-ROMs?

'That little guy with the glasses has a good arm." Hiokai thought as he fled the Nerima JUNIOR wrecking crew. 

Somewhere, the older generation all giggled evilly, without being sure why.

AN: Heh, Happi a hero now? Think about it, the one soft spot the old pervert has is for little kids, and when Happosai is angry, life is bad for his target. Any who want to argue his soft spot, ask and I'll give a short list. 

That's not to say Happosai's a good person, he's pretty happily evil actually, but he has SOME redeeming qualities. 

As for Hiokai, He'll get a few moments to 'Shine'...is that really the right word?... but he's basically become my Kuno. (i.e. Everyone beats him down.) 

Of course, is there anyone out there who minds the fact that he gets beat down?


	14. Introduction

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter 13

"Well, last stop, the Tendo Dojo." Shi muttered, glancing over at her depressed best friend. Amara, on the other side of Himeko, was frowning and visibly concerned about her, since the older girl had not spoken much since her fathers assault. Shampoo and Cologne were trailing behind them by a few paces while Kaji and Mike Hibiki walked in the middle of the group. Kaji and Amara had both planned on splitting up from their classmates, but the attack had made them nervous and angry so they had stayed. Mike was along looking for his older brother, but he was no less eager to kick Hiokai around again, after hearing an abridged story from everyone.

Himeko sighed and pushed open the gate, leading the somber junior crew inside. They all walked around the house towards the dinning room where Himeko was supposed to meet her family. 

They all froze upon discovering a tiny old man fighting with a European girl wielding a sword.

"Happi, what did you do to annoy a ten-year-old?" Cologne demanded, watching the surprisingly skilled girl slash at the pervert.

"Hello Cologne-chan, meet Elizabeth. I adopted her." Happosai chuckled proudly.

"Would piss Shampoo off." Shampoo muttered.

Cologne just blinked and considered the girl who was now hiding behind the Anything Goes Grandmaster. She had witnessed the girl's skill, which for her age was most impressive (Just slightly above the elder Nerima crew's average... which granted is brought down by Kuno.) She was an underfed ten, and easily years away from displaying the... Attributes Happosai appreciated in most women, meaning Happosai was displaying his most frustratingly endearing quality. "Not another wounded bird."

"Worse then that. Is that Himeko?" The ancient master asked.

Himeko answered for herself, shyly. "Yes sir."

"Oh, she called me sir. Finally some respect." The ancient pervert crowed. Then he became serious. "Himeko, I need to ask you a question about your father. I am sorry, but I need a few answers that you might be able to provide."

"O...Okay."

"Did he ever mention preparing you for a 'Him'? As a wife or something like that?"

"Um... Kinda. He never said anything about marriage, but he mentioned a HIM. Why?"

Happosai ignored her question. "Did he ever mention a name?"

"No. Why?" 

"I'm not sure, but I'll explain when Ranma and the rest of your family get here."

Himeko looked around, just realizing their absence. "I was supposed to meet them here..."

"Oh...something came up dear child. Don't worry, they'll be back shortly."

_________________________________________________________________________________

On the other side of Nerima.

"Damn you Happosai! Change my name!"

"Why the heck did he have to bring you here now! And why did you kidnap Kasumi, Pantyhose?"

"He said she could change my name! That lying old man!"

"Oh my..."

____________________________________________________________________________________

"I'm sure they won't be long." Happosai assured the group, pulling a small package out of his gi. "Shampoo, would you tell me if you think Kasumi would like this bracelet?" (AN: Hey, Even HAPPOSAI doesn't want Kasumi upset. Gifts are good, not getting fed is bad. heh.)

"Aiyah... Very pretty."

"Good."

Cologne had slipped around Happosai to look Elizabeth over. The girl didn't shy away completely, but she was obviously nervous. The sword in her hands was a miniature version of a European bastard sword, a weapon Cologne had only a passing familiarity with. It had obviously been well used and the sweat stains on the light-colored wood of the handle showed to her trained warrior's eye that it had served mostly in the girl's hand. It was a simple weapon of iron and steel and the crone could identify the words on the blade as German. "VonDruchtner Leads All? What an arrogant slogan to wield."

"You should have met her father... Of course, he probably would have found what I did to him far more kind then what you would have done." Happosai said, slipping the jewelry box back in his tunic. "It seems, from what I remember in Kasumi's letter, that Elizabeth has had a life similar to Himeko's, right down to a father preparing her for something... Or more accurately, someone."

Cologne nodded absently. "She's good, but we really should teach her some REAL warrior's skills."

"I've started with some anything goes, but I was actually going to ask you to adopt her into the tribe while we're at it. Amazon Wu Shu is definitely more apt for a weapons user then my personal style, and she is definitely an abused female."

"Under our Ancient laws?" Cologne chuckled. "I knew I should never have let you read my Laws book."

"That's not ALL you swear you shouldn't have done." The old man laughed as the old woman tried to hit him with her stick.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Wakari Troika growled in anger as he watched the video one of his more subtle agents had brought to him. He turned off the VCR when the Tendo's and Saotome's returned to the Dojo, and lead Happosai and Elizabeth VonDruchtner into the house. He tapped a key and a woman dressed in the classic black of a ninja entered the room. "Have a courier take this to Lord Hakama. Also get four of your best troops and have them check the other girls. These people are stumbling across far too much."

"Hai, Lord Troika. Should we also look into the fate of the Elder VonDruchtner?"

"No. I have heard of Happosai. If the German fool truly enraged him, then the fool is dead. Just check on the other girls." 

"Very well. It shall be done."

"It had better be. We only have a few months before the Darkness."

AN: I know these tend to come out short. Sorry about this.

Well, Troika's back, and Happi's brought the news that something is wrong to the gang. This should get interesting.


	15. Unknown Problems

Disclaimer: Nope. I don't own that. I don't own that. I sure as HELL don't own Happosai or Genma! Himeko and Shi are mine though, so there.

Course if you wanna use them, go for it. I'd like to read it.

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter 14

Happosai settled in, his pipe in his hand as he considered the group around him. Ranma, the formerly fiancee and now wife brigade, Cologne, and the children they'd somehow adopted. The finest young Martial artists in the world along with in his own biased opinion, two of the greatest Grand Masters in the world.

Along with Soun and Genma, the biggest under achievers on earth. Also his opinion.

He ignored their questioning glares for a few minutes, then he spoke. "I'll start my story, and Elizabeth's story, at the beginning. Hold off on the questions until I'm done." He glared at the gathered Wrecking Crew until they all nodded.

"I had traveled to Paris, where I had hoped to... study some of the... Musketeers journals to add their martial knowledge to the Anything Goes school. I've always felt that the East and West had much to offer each other."

"And the Paris Lingerie and Swimwear expo had nothing to do with it, I'm sure." Nabiki muttered with a wry grin.

"Of course it did! How long have you known me?" The old man yelled., then calmed down. "Anyway, the stupid show had a performance by some guys before getting started with the good part of the show, and since they had armed security around the back stage doors I decided to visit the Eiffel Tower." Happosai grinned. "Remember our visit, back when the fair was still on Cologne-chan?"

The Amazon Matriarch whacked the Anything Goes master with her staff, blushing. "Watch it, Happy."

Happosai chuckled, in spite of the pain (And ignored the disgusted looks on everyone else's face.). Well, as I climbed up, I heard a girl crying. Being a softhearted old man, shut up Ranma, I investigated." His smile vanished. "I found little Elizabeth here bound and hanging from a railing."

"Her... Father..." The seething, enraged tone in the old mans voice caused Soun and Genma to back away. "Was trying to teach her the so-called "VonDruchtner Armor Skin" technique. A technique with a goal similar to the Amazon's own Blasting Point."

Cologne looked at the girl, who looked to be Himeko's age. "But we rarely teach that to anyone younger then Eighteen! Ryoga was a boarder line on if I was pushing it or not."

"Indeed, the same is true for this technique." Happosai tossed a thick, leather bound tome onto the table. "That's the written version of the VonDruchtner sword style. It proscribes men under eighteen learning the Armor Skin technique, and women should never learn it. Granted, that's from sixteenth century Europe, without Amazon's, but still..."

"He was risking a lot. What happened then?" Ranma asked, less horrified then the others in the room, thanks to his own father.

"Papa and Grandpapa fought." The German girl spoke for the fist time. "Papa lost." There was loss in her pale blue eyes, which she quickly hid under blond bangs, as though she thought someone would punish her for speaking. Happosai merely patted her on the back in a comforting gesture. 

"How badly did he loose?" Cologne asked, considering Happosai.

"He was... Very good."

"Was?" Ranma blinked, then yelled "You didn't!"

"I had to! He cut her rope in the fight, and was between me and her. Which would you have chosen? Kill him or risk her life?" Ranma opened his mouth, but Happosai interrupted. "And I know you know the right answer. Saffron forced you to ask this question once before."

Ranma froze. "You bastard!"

"No Ranma." Cologne reprimanded. "He, and you, made the right choices. Your mother's mentioned your nightmares to me son-in-law, and I've had the same kind of nightmares. I've had them for years. Saffron and VonDruchtner... and other's like them... sometimes don't give you a choice.

"There should be!" 

"But sometimes we can't see it in time!" Happosai spoke again. "I killed VonDruchtner, you killed Saffron. With our lives, our natures, we'll likely both have to make that choice again!" He paused. "We're both bastards, damned by our fates. All we can do is try to avoid it and, if it must be done, that we do it for the right reasons!" 

The two most powerful members of the Anything Goes school stared at each other for a full minute, then Happosai spoke in a far calmer voice. "And this reason's pretty big. It seems that Elizabeth, Himeko, and maybe other children are all caught up in some sort of plot... And I don't know what that plot is." 

"And I have a feeling we should find out."

_____________________________________________________________________________________

He ran, his breathing ragged, through the rain soaked streets of LA. His black uniform, the classic ninja's outfit, was glued to his skin by the icy cold rain but he didn't notice the chill. He was to terrified for that. 

He and his partner had tried to retrieve the girl, not wanting to tell their Lords that they had lost a third child to interference. Maria Rodriguez's new foster family, it seemed, was more prepared then they had thought, and the woman who'd stormed in on the girl's screams had been like a specter of death come for their souls. His partner had fallen already, back in the house, and now his only thoughts were of escape.

He ducked into an alley, and leaned against the wall to catch his breath. He'd been running for thirty minutes so he was sure he'd outrun his pursuer. "I should have stayed on the Nerima project. Damn that girl. Both of them!"

"We aren't the one's who're damned, jerk!" The insult was his only warning, and he looked up in time for a knee to meet his face.

The dark skinned woman who'd hit him landed next to his body, and used a foot to roll his nose and mouth out of a puddle. She then leaned down and dug through his outfit's pockets, finding a wallet with no ID's, but a name on a piece of paper."

"Ranma Saotome, Nerima ward Tokyo." Stephanie Miller muttered. "Seems like I might need to brush up on my Kanji."

AN: As usual, I'm sorry for the wait, and the short chapters. Busy busy busy.


	16. Kidnappers Local 277

Disclaimer: Hey, you've read this far, so obviously you've noticed that I don't own most of this stuff. Why do you keep making me write this? And no, Genma, it's not because I don't have a child to offer the creator as a wife or husband for another child.

****

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter 13

Ukyo cursed as she gave up to the inevitable and hammered the broken heating coil with her wrench. Her griddle had given out half way through last night's dinner rush, forcing her to use a small propane kit she used for travel and special events. When she came down to try to fix it earlier that morning it became painfully clear that she needed a new part, and that she couldn't work through the day with it. Aside from being out of gas, it was Saturday and there was no way she could keep up with even a fifth of the lunch shopping crowd.

"Konatsu, could you come out here?" She called, crawling out from under her cooking counter. The feminine looking ninja-boy quickly appeared. 

"Yes, Ukyo-sama?"

"Can you do me a favor and run to Hiroshi's Kitchen Supplies?" She asked, writing the part information down on a slip of paper. "I'll stay here and do the inventory. I'm afraid we're loosing a day's business thanks to this stupid grill." Her voice stated exactly how much she didn't like that idea.

"Of course, but couldn't we open late?"

"No. I've had to replace one of these jackasses before. It will take me all day and it's a one-person job." She grinned. "I guess you have to finally take that day off you've been fighting me over." She raised a hand before he could argue. "No. Go play with my Amazon husband. No Arguments." She chuckled at his stricken look.

"Yes Ukyo-sama. Perhaps I can help Nodoka-sama with her home for Ranma-sama."

"Whatever you want honey. You'll go after you get me that part."

She watched him leave then shook her head. Picking up the phone next to her counter. "Mrs. Saotome? Oh, sorry... Mom..." Ukyo couldn't help but give a happy, girlish squeal at that. "My waitress, well waiter, Konatsu is coming over there later. It's his day off so would you please do me a favor and not let him do house work? It's the first time I've gotten him to take a day off in months and I'd like him to do something other then work."

She giggled at something Nodoka said. "He is that. Well, I've got to get back to work. Bye."

Hanging up the phone, still chuckling, she began to turn when she heard the front door open. "I'm sorry but we're closed." She froze when she realized the people who had entered weren't customers. Three men in the black uniform of the classic ninja's had slipped in the front door. A noise behind her drew the chef's attention to two more entering from the back room, and the door beyond. 

"Who are you?" She demanded, slipping into a stance. She cursed silently to herself for leaving her mega-spatula in her bedroom that morning.

The men approached slowly, and never spoke. She tensed, waiting for their attack. She didn't wait long. 

The one behind her, in the crude circle they had formed, sprung at her with a loud cry. He received a quick and savage back kick as a response. 

The first attack was like a bell to the other ninja's. The two to her sides rushed in and grabbed her arms. With an evil laugh Ukyo used that against them, dropping into a crouch and forcing them to take all of her, surprisingly significant, weight. They hadn't gotten steady footings yet so they both stumbled forward, their heads smacking against each other. 

She quickly pushed them away and came up from her crouch like a rocket, driving a long uppercut into the fourth mans jaw, taking him out of the fight by surprise. Unfortunately she'd lost track of the fifth man who drove the tips of a pocket Tazer into her side.

Ukyo slumped to the floor, never giving them the satisfaction of screaming.

Troika entered a few moments later, looking over his four unconscious men and their victim. He looked at his single, aware warrior. "Wake them up. We don't know how long the other woman will be gone. We must leave.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Himeko ran an expression of intense concentration on her face. The man behind her was a determined pursuer, and she already had a painful stitch in her side!

She risked a glance behind her, looking at the running form of Ranma behind her, thinking 'This is a special technique? Run away?' Normally she didn't think badly of her ersatz father, but this one was a bit much for her to believe. 

"I'm going to get you and beat you up!" Ranma yelled, playing a "Bad Guy" to the hilt. 

'And he's a ham too.' she thought with a mental giggle.

That morning at breakfast Ranma had declared his intention to teach her the "Infamous" Saotome Special technique. The terms her uncle Genma had used to describe it had certainly seemed impressive, but she'd soon found out it consisted of running from Ranma, who'd said he'd kick her in the rump if she went to slow.

Of course her drifting thoughts had distracted her from running, and true to his word Ranma gave her a firm (but not painful) kick in the rear. 

Himeko grunted, falling from the fence to she'd been running across. Tucking into a tight ball she rolled to absorb the impact, though she ended up on her back a little dizzy. She noticed a figure on the nearest rooftop to their position, watching them, but quickly thrust it from her mind as Ranma's first came into view. 'At least I get to use what Grandpa Happi gave me.'

Ranma smiled as she avoided the blow, moving in to keep the pressure but froze. When he noticed an odd hissing sound.

Himeko jumped away only moments before the Happo Darakin went off, leaving Ranma out cold in a crater.

It wasn't until powerful arms went around her that she remembered the watcher from before.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Ranma groaned and regained awareness of his surroundings slowly, the sound of someone calling his voice helping to wake him up. It took him several tries before he finally called out. Fortunately that gave the pig-tailed warrior time to identify the voice. "Konatsu, I'm over here." 

Groaning, he sat up just in time for the bishonen ninja to hop the fence and land on his head. "Ouch!"

"Sorry!" The feminine young man apologized. "Ranma, someone kidnapped Ukyo-sama!"

"What? When?"

"She sent me to get a part for the stove. It was sometime within the last hour I know."

"Right. Gotta get going then. Himeko, we have to go... Himeko?" Ranma looked around. "She didn't run off without me, did she?"

"Ranma, this has your name on it."

Ranma froze when the ninja-boy handed him a note addressed to him. Carefully he unfolded the piece of paper.

[I have taken your daughter. If you want her back you'll have to fight me for her. Meet me at the burnt out warehouse three blocks from here at sundown.]

"HIMEKO!"

AN: Duh duh duh! Yep, it's the Fox Cliffhanger once again! 

For those who don't know, Konatsu is the name (Assuming I remembered correctly. I checked, Honest.) Of a young man whose rather cruel stepfamily raised as a girl and a servant. He dresses like a woman, in Japanese apparently uses the feminine form of speech, and in general is odd. Ukyo and, I believe Ranma, rescued him from his rather weird family and he works for Ukyo, living in the shop with her.


	17. not a Fiancee

Disclaimer: Okay, I don't own it. If I did I'd have been updating more often! (Ducks from thrown objects)

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo Mama, Chapter 16

"HIMEKO!" Ranma bellowed, driving his fist through the wall he and the girl had been running over so little time before. Konatsu winced in sympathy, for the wall and for the tormented pig-tailed man standing in front of him. "Come on Konatsu, we've got to round up the rest of the crew. Whoever took Ukyo and Himeko is going to have to learn that we don't play in Nerima!" The seething rage was accompanied by a glowing aura of scarlet around the pigtailed boy. Konatsu was left to follow as he took to the rooftops.

* * *

Nadoka looked up from the book she was reading, standing when a second series of knocks came through the front door. She set the book aside and opened the door, only to gasp and hold a hand to her mouth in shock. 

"Uncle Mike?" She asked, looking at the ebony skinned man in happy surprise, quickly reaching out and hugging the American man whom was chuckling.

"Hello Nadoka. Been a while." Michael Richards responded, hugging the much smaller Asian woman back. "And apparently long enough that I got lost three times looking for your house! And directories don't help much when I forget the name of that guy you married."  
"it wouldn't have been so bad, if you'd kept in touch!" Nadoka scolded, leading him into the door, closing it behind him. "Why, we thought you'd fallen of the face of the earth, or would have if it weren't for the Christmas cards Mother shows me each year. Where have you been?"

"Well, since I sold your father my share of the business I fell into real estate back in California. Made a mint if I do say so myself."  
"Then what brings you over here now? Not that I'm complaining, it's great to see you again."

Mike sighed. "Honestly, that's more my daughter then me."  
"Little Stephanie? Is she here too?"

"Yeah, and still thinks she's a superhero." Mike sighed, sitting down in the offered couch. "She found a little girl in an alley a month or so ago. She'd been beaten up pretty bad, and she brought her back home with her. We called the cops and it seems her father was probably the perpetrator."

Nadoka, who was halfway to the kitchen, easily remembering her favorite "Uncles" favorite snacks, froze. "He was some sort of fighter?"

Mike blinked. "Yes. How'd you..."  
"And he was 'Training' her for something."

"We didn't quite sort out what. He showed up at the house, tried to kidnap her back but between Stephanie kicking him out a window and the LAPD shooting him when he refused to surrender, we never found out why. Nadoka, how do you know this?"

"We've seen it, your girl would be three times now." Nadoka sat down across from the American. "Bad as this sounds, you seem to have found the girl in the best shape up till now. Why if Ranma hadn't been there..."

"Ranma? Ranma Saotome?"

Nadoka blinked. "Yes, you've heard of my son?"

"Your son? We thought he was the father of some girl named Himeko!"

"Legally he is, now. Her real father... Horaki I'm ashamed to say... tried to teach her something called the Neko-ken, which probably makes whatever condition the girl you found was in seem like gentle care. If Ranma hadn't been there, she'd probably have severely hurt someone."

"You mean he saved her? This isn't good."  
"Why wouldn't that be good?"

"Stephanie thinks he's the one abusing her. We need to go, now!"

* * *

"Ranma, we need to come up with a plan, or at least something that resembles one! This isn't a normal fight." Akane was yelling, but for once she was the one calling for reason. Shampoo, standing next to her, reluctantly agreed though the pig tailed boy didn't seem interested in hearing it. 

"It took us to long to get everyone. I'll fight whoever is there, while you guys get Himeko and Ucchan."

"Saotome, as much as I wouldn't mind seeing you get beaten by a horde of ninja's," Mouse, who had just recently returned from China, spoke calmly. "We have to take the safety of Ms. Kounji and Himeko into account. If I might suggest, you, Akane Tendo, and myself go in first. We are the best at multiple opponent fighting. Shampoo is more then capable at protecting herself, and as you well know can get into anyplace if she's motivated."

"Mouse have good idea." Shampoo nodded, to angry to realize she was complimenting the blind boy. "Himeko to important to go off half cocked. Spatula girl too." The last part wasn't really as grudgingly said as it sounded, but Ranma still gave her a dirty look.

"Ranma, they're right. And Shampoo can carry them both out if she needs to. It's not much of a plan, but it's better then charge in and destroy."

"Fine, we'll do it your way." Ranma growled, then spun on one heel and strode out of the park they'd finally managed to get him to stop at, towards the building where the kidnappers wanted to meet. The others followed behind, all grim

The building was a burnt out husk, left over from a rave that had gone wrong a few months ago. Ranma vaguely remembered some other college students talking about being there, and seeing a speaker spark and catch fire, but he'd never been that interested. Either way, it didn't effect anything as far as he was concerned. Shampoo split off of the rest of the group, vanishing into shadows like the cat that she sometimes became. They strode into the shattered loading dock door, looking around the darkened cavern of a building, looking for the danger they knew was there.

"So this is Ranma Saotome." The accented voice of a woman came from all around them, echoing off the walls. "And he brought friends. A coward are you?"

Ranma growled. "This from someone who kidnaps children! Come out where I can see you!"

"Oh, how funny." The voice stated not the least amused sounding. "Someone who abuses his or her daughter is insulted by my kidnapping her? Rich."  
"What the hell are you talking about!" Ranma demanded. "I never...ooff." His cries were spoiled by the sudden appearance of a woman, an appearance that coincided with a sharp pain in his back and a long fall down, into what was apparently a cellar of the warehouse. He barely managed to roll with the impact, and then only because she left his spine before they hit the floor.

"Ranma!" Akane yelled from above, but the shadows had swallowed the combatants, leaving Ranma and his attacker in shadows.

For a few moments, at least. Ranma let his anger filter into his aura, manifesting a blue aura that lit the space around him. The light revealed a black woman, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, ten feet away. Her short hair was died purple, and she was standing in a stance Ranma didn't recognize. That surprised him.

"Who the heck are you, anyway?" Ranma demanded, carefully circling. His normal instincts, to not hit women, were overwhelmed by her unusual stance and the kidnapping. He was trying to read her style, but it seemed so very basic. Her attack and landing spoke of skill, however, so he knew better.

"Stephanie Miller and I'm not letting you turn that sweet girl into another abused fighting machine."  
Ranma was so shocked by that accusation, one he himself and considered throwing at Himeko's father if he ever saw him, that he actually dropped his guard. "Wait, do you think.."

He was interrupted as Stephanie was suddenly on him, delivering a quick combo of two jabs and an uppercut. Again the movements were very simple, almost beginners stuff, but the execution was that of an expert. Ranma's instincts held out and he rolled away from her, avoiding the stomp kick she had aimed for where his head should have landed.

He countered quickly, spinning on his back. She jumped over the foot sweep, but gave him the fraction of an instant he needed to gain his feet. "Kachu tenchin Ameriguiken!" He cried out as he threw dozens of punches at the unusual girl, not holding back for fear of what Himeko might be going through if he waited.

Stephanie gasped and grunted, surrendering to momentum and falling back, rolling backwards over her shoulder as she let the punches push her away from the pig-tailed warrior. He stopped throwing punches, ready to follow, but that's just what the girl wanted. While still 'recovering' her feet, she dove forward. Landing on one knee and driving one fist down into the shorter man's groin.

Ranma winced, barely spinning out of the direct line of the assault. For once thankful for the rougher parts of Genma's training he didn't pause to think. He jumped up, a short hop landing on the girl's head and a big jump, pushing her face into the concrete while launching him into the rafters. His feet had no sooner hit the girder then he'd spun around preparing to launch him self straight down into the stunned woman.

"Wait, Ranma, Stephanie, stop this now!" His mother's voice froze him in place.

"What the..." The black woman demanded, only to be interrupted by another, masculine, cry.

"Stephanie, stop now! This isn't what you think!"

Both fighters paused and looked at the entrance, finding their parents standing there, and not looking happy.

"This can't be good." Both muttered, in different languages, but the same basic intention.

* * *

Ukyo shook her head, groggily coming out of the stunned state. She tried to move, but her arms were trapped, held wide away from her sides. She didn't now why, or where she was, but she knew she was in trouble. 

"What, who... Where am I?"

"You are in my laboratory Ms. Kounji. You have... Volunteered for an experiment."

"I never volunteered for anything!" She yelled, looking up at the European looking man. "Wait, you sent those ninjas!"

"Yes, I did." He nodded, calmly filling a syringe with a violently yellow liquid. "My name, by the way, is Troika."  
"What's that." She demanded, to focused on the needle to hear his name.

"A mixture of amphetamines and the extract of a certain mushroom known for its hullucengenetic effects. Fear in a bottle if you will. You see, your friend Himeko has undergone a bit of a transformation since she "learned" the Neko Ken. A bit of research has shown that these changes came from the deaths of the cats and her fear making her Aura a pure, almost blank canvas for the ki of the deaths to add to. Your aura, which I'm afraid shows the signs of having reached it's maximum potential, is a wonderful tool to experiment with."  
"You're going to put me through the Neko Ken!"

"Not yet. First I need to test and see how much terror is needed before your aura becomes elastic enough." Troika ignored her futile struggles, injecting the concoction into one of her bound arms. "You should feel the effects almost instantly"

Ukyo growled, even as cold spikes of unreasoning fear began running through her spine. She refused to give him the satisfaction of screaming.

Her resolve lasted for half of the first day.

AN: My wasn't that dark.

Oh, and I'm back, and am staying this time. Anyone happy?


	18. Cat Fight

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½. I do own a beat up truck that I originally paid like four hundred dollars for. If you actually think SUING me will get you anywhere, repeat reading the sentence about the truck.

Ranma-papa, Shampoo-mama:

Chapter 17

"How is the research proceeding?" Troika asked, finally returning to his personal project after having been called away to South America for a week. He did not enjoy having to report losing another girl, this one to her fathers own stupidity and the death it called, to Lord Hakama. He did, on the other hand, enjoy punishing the deviant for his mistake. It took him an hour to get the blood out from under his fingernails.

"It proceeded well, up to a point." The man, who was wearing a somewhat contradictory mix of a movie ninja's uniform, sans mask, and a lab coat. "The girl has definitely learned the Neko-ken… and destroyed three men when she burst from the animal containment chamber. Fortunately her 'ki-claws' are not able to penetrate the alloys used on the lab doors and walls. Nothing we have attempted have broken her out of her feral mental state, however.

"Hmm, that is unfortunate. Show her to me on video."

"Yes Troika."

The central screen of the ninja-scientists workstation lit up, revealing a naked Ukyo Kounji prowling around what used to be a multi-million dollar laboratory on all four legs. In spite of how awkward her position should make her she moved with a feral grace that could not be denied. "Is that a birthmark, or did you tranquilize her?" He asked, pointing at a small red mark on one shoulder.

"Tranq gun. The good news is it worked. The bad news is that Shakima's arm was not reattatchable due to the damage it suffered. "He commited suicide yesterday."

"Too bad, he was a good man." Troika leaned down, closer to the screen. "How long did she stay out?"

"A couple of hours, about half as long as the dosage should have worked."

"Still, that is plenty of time. Get a team together and be ready to tranquilize the subject this afternoon. I dislike wasting resources, and I'm curious what this Neko-ken can do.

* * *

"Look, I've been apologizing all week Ranma. Would you stop giving me the cold shoulder!" Stephanie miller growled at the pig-tailed man walking in front of her. Ranma grumbled something under his breath. "What was that? I didn't hear you."

"I said, at least this time I didn't get dragged off to China to find out it was a mistake." Ranma replied. "I just wish you could have kidnapped Ucchan while you were at it. It's been what, a week? And I still can't find anyone who's seen anything. Konatsu either!."

Stephanie nodded. She'd volunteered to go with Ranma on several of his information gathering quests, which lately involved him finding low life martial artists at illegal street fights and beating them until they admitted every wrong they ever commited. While it had proven less then effective they had solved two separate murders and had stumbled across one pimp who was drugging teenaged girls for his 'stable'.

She still wasn't sure who had more fun beating on him, her or the then redheaded girl with her.

"Has she ever had this happen before?"

"No, outside of one magic prince I don't think anyone's ever grabbed Ucchan before. Not that I remember at least. And the idiots who keep coming and kidnapping Akane usually do something blatant so I can find them!"

As if on cue an explosion rocked the street they were walking on, and smoke rose from a near by construction site, promptly followed by running and screaming construction workers.

"Like that?"

Ranma shrugged. "Actually that's pretty subtle. Might as well take a peek though." He replied, hearing one construction worker yelling "She's insane". "It might be another one like Himeko."

Both martial artists jumped the fence around the work site and froze, for different reasons. "What the heck is she doing?" the dark skinned girl demanded, staring at what appeared to be a woman, dressed in black, acting like a cat of all things.

Ranma didn't hear her. "Ukyo?"

Ukyo Kounji hissed in response, her feral eyes locking on the girl standing next to 'her mate'. It was the only warning either of the two sane martial artists had before she blurred, moving straight towards Stephanie.

She didn't even get a chance to scream as Ranma pushed her from the side, and out of the path of the ki-claws directed straight at her head. She was blinded when a hot liquid also struck her face. Brushing it off, she discovered her face was covered in blood.

Ranma pushed the feral Ukyo back with his good arm, clutching his wounded fore arm to his body, staining his shirt. The cuts weren't in a life threatening spot, but they were serious. Unfortunately he couldn't leave to seek help. "Stephanie! Run and get my mom! Tell her Ukyo's in the neko-ken! She know's what to do."

Stephanie backed up several steps, Ranma intentionally keeping himself between her and the apparently insane girl. "What? I can't just leave you here…"

"Do it! I'm the only one who MIGHT hold her off, and if I don't someone else might KILL her. Now go!"

She nodded, and jumped the fence, allowing Ranma to focus on his childhood friend.

"Ukyo…come on…kitty…That's a good girl." He spoke soothingly, trying to do what Akane claimed worked on him. The mind numbing terror her meow's drove into him didn't exactly help his concentration.

Years of built up frustration reared it's ugly head, however. While she had no intention of KILLING the stupid tom cat, but he needed to learn who was boss. She dove and swiped at his nose.

"Ack!" Ranma threw himself back, less then gracefully for once, and rolled away in the dirt and gravel. He'd never realized how fast he was in the Neko-ken, and Himeko had been manageable. Ukyo, terrifyingly, was faster then him.

"YowlllllL!" Ukyo cried out..and dove again, trying to deliver two strokes to Ranma's chest. The pigtailed boy blocked both attacks at her wrist, guiding them over his head and letting them dig deep furrows into the ground above him, before kicking her away and into a water tank sitting next to a newly poured foundation, hoping to break her out of it.

Instead all he got was an angrier, and now very wet, Ukyo-neko.

"Well… crap."

* * *

"Mrs. Saotome!" Stephanie yelled, jumping the wall at the Tendo Dojo, hoping she was there since she wasn't at her own home.

"Stephanie? What's the…. Is that blood?" Nadoka cried out the last part, having just walked out of the kitchen with a Gasping Kasumi.

"Ranma's fighting some girl who think she's a cat. I think he called her Ukyo! He said she's in the Neko-ken or something."

Both the other women gasped. "I'll call Elder Cologne!" Kasumi spoke first, almost diving for the closest phone.

"Yes, do that. Stephanie, take me to my son. Now!"

Kasumi watched them run out, hoping that one way or the other, it wasn't to late.

* * *

Several minutes had flown by, and Ranma was getting tired. He hated to admit it, but he wasn't having much luck. He'd finally given up on trying not to hurt Ukyo, and had managed to bandage his arm while she was digging her way out of the pile of piping he'd thrown her into. Both were bleeding, but Ukyo was doing much better of the two, partially due to the outfit she was wearing, which was apparently some type of body armor.

His plan at the moment was to try and tire her out, but that wasn't proving to work as well as he hoped. She didn't seem to be getting exhausted any where near as quickly as he himself was, and unlike him she was never holding back.

"SON-IN-LAW!" He heard the voice of the Amazon elder cry out, quickly followed by Nadoka's cry of "RANMA!" His relief in hearing help arrive was very short lived.

Ukyo-neko had heard them to, and was going after them.

"No! UCCHAN!" He cried, diving out the new hole she had carved in the wall between them and the older women after her, just in time to see the chef turned cat take a swipe at Cologne, shreading her staff into a half dozen pieces. The old mistress of Amazon martial arts didn't take things laying down, however, and delivered a palm strike to fast for any but Ranma to see, knocking the girl down and into a newly laid foundation. Then she drew a dagger from her robes.

"What are you doing?"

"She's to old to get back Ranma! It's for her own good!" Cologne yelled back, pressing down her own dismay at this action with her feeling of duty. In spite of how she acted she'd grown fond of most of the Nerima Wrecking crew, and the chef had always been a good foil for both Shampoo, and herself in a business sense. The Elder threw the dagger, ignoring the cries off all three witnesses. She had to act while Ukyo was still pulling herself out of the cement trough she landed in.

Ukyo-neko climbed out just in time for a wet, sticky liquid to cover her face in a manner that didn't make her happy. She shook the red stuff out of her eyes to find her impertinent mate looking down at her. He looked more hurt then she'd made him too.

Ranma growled. "Cologne, help me stop her! We got Himeko back, we can get her too!"

"She's to old Ranma. We've lost her!"

The dark haired girl took the opportunity provided by their apparently distraction to dive at Ranma, ki claws actually visible in the dust surrounding the fight. She struck, or at least tried to.

Ranma, at the last moment, dove forward and under her attack, wrapping the insane girl in what he'd claim later was a reversed bear hug. He knew of only one chance, and even that was one in a million, since he'd only even seen it done once. For anyone else, the weren't betting odds. To Ranma, it was nothing unusual.

"Damn it Cologne! Ranma Saotome don't loose!" He yelled, as he drove one stiffened finger into the so called Yang Point, blind and making his best guess of how the Elder did it for Himeko.

* * *

Troika leaned forward when the boy, in spite of all logic, dove in front of the amazon womans thrown blade. "Now why would he risk that." He muttered, even as the boy dodged, with a speed that none of the Camera's watching the fight could follow, dove through the girls attack, and wrapped her in a hug.

"Damn it Cologne! Ranma Saotome don't loose!" came across the speakers, then for a moment everything froze as he touched a point somewhere on the girls neck. Then a moment's flash of green filled his screen and the camera's all went blank.

"Interesting."

AN: Here you go folks, and this one's fairly long compared to some chapters I've done for some stories recently. Hope it's enjoyable. I'm really tring to get into the swing of things now, and since I have a new lap top and all that fun Wi Fi connectivity going for me now, I might just pull it off.

Happy New Year.


	19. SuperNova

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½. I own a Laptop, but frankly if you try to sue for that I'll use the Saotome secret technique.

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-mama

Chapter 18

The color green filled Ranma's senses as he fought the waves of heavy, depression laden female ki to hold onto the struggling form of Ukyo. She was still growling, still spitting, but Ranma wasn't going to give up that easily.

Although the ki he was absorbing made him want to.

"Damn it Ukyo, I'm not going to loose you to the damn cat! DON'T JUST GIVE UP ON ME!" Ranma yelled over the roar of the key explosion. He fought one hand up the chef's back, pulling the struggling cat girl by her hair so he could look into her eyes.

What he saw didn't inspire him with confidence. All he saw through the windows of her soul were feral rage and hunger. He felt his heart shatter as he realized she wasn't coming back, his resistance to the depression laden ki of the terror induced state slacking. His sapphire eyes filled with a despair that he realized were mirrored in her own.

'Wait, despair?' The pigtailed warrior thought to him self through the pain of the girls exploding aura and the heavy horror that had almost shattered his heart. He knew the cat; it didn't feel anything as complicated as despair! Fear and sad, yes, but not outright despair. 'She's still in there!'

"Ukyo! Ucchan! Come on!"

The girl just snarled in return, struggling like the cat she so resembled in personality at that moment. She was unaffected by her own savagely expanding aura and it was all the Saotome Heir could do to hold her to him…he gasped as one of her ki-claws dug into his shoulder.

"There's got to be a way!" He yelled, as if to push off the affects of her own depression laden ki. That's when it hit him.

"I hope this works!" he muttered… releasing the cat girl with one arm, the other arm holding on for dear life. He groaned with the pain of moving the bleeding appendage towards his own neck.

"Ranma! No!" Colognes voice barely penetrated the barrier created by Ukyo's power unleashed. "You're a…. Male ki… Explosion!" Not a lot of information, but enough. Fortunately Ranma saw a solution…

And gave the cat girl an opening to attack him. Ukyo took it and drove her six inch claws of pure energy into the pigtailed boy's shoulders, Ranma shifting just in time to avoid loosing the use of his arms.

His right arm continued to his neck.

The left arm drove through the already damaged wooden barrier between him and the still very wet concrete.

"This is probably going to suck." Ranma-chan muttered, wrapping her legs around the other girl just as she tapped the second Yang point of his life. Right at the base of her swan like, feminine neck.

AAAAAA

Cologne gasped and grabbed hold of both Stephanie and Nadoka, her own ki aura expanding into a shield of "heavy ki" just as her ersatz Son-In-Law's aura exploded with the power she could only compare to tiny super-nova. The bubble of energy she'd formed slammed through the fences surrounding the work site and plowed deeply into a parked car before the matriarch was forced to release the powerful, and exhausting, technique.

"How'd you do that?" Stephanie demanded in shock, forgetting for the moment the drama in the construction yard.

"A thousand years of Amazon history doesn't go to waste girl. Trust me." Cologne said, groaning as she regained her feet.

Nadoka had already stood, but dared move no closer to the swirling green and blue aurora that nearly blinded her to look at. "What did he do?"

"SHE, luckily for us, released her Yang point. I don't know why though!" Cologne looked on in awe. She knew Ranma had a reason, and he was usually right when it came down the wire like this, but she didn't know WHAT he had thought of.

Then the aura's shifted colors. Green turned to a shade of red, then to pink, turning the on looker's shadows purple. Then both auras's winked out.

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" The American asked.

Ukyo's voice, quavering but audible drifted out of the rubble. "Someone… someone help… he's… bleeding…."

Stephanie and Nadoka dove through the damaged fence without hesitation, along with several braver construction workers. Cologne just stared in shock.

"A good thing…" The matriarch said softly to her self. "A very good thing."

BBBBBB

"My head feels like Ryoga drop kicked me, but I'm fine." Ranma said a few days later. "Thanks for asking."

Akane just nodded, still slightly disturbed by his unusually polite response. Cologne claimed it was a side effect from 'Son-in-law' getting in touch with his feminine side. Since it was the only one, and a more polite Ranma was a good thing, no one really pointed it out to him. The fact that he referred to Cologne by name and not as 'Old Ghoul' did freak people out a little the day after the fight with Ukyo.

This was mitigated by him kicking Happosai into orbit that same day for trying to 'Help Ranma' with the 'softer things' in life. A pervert, it seems, was still a pervert and Ranma was still Ranma.

"I know you say that Ranma, and you healed fast just like usual, but your shoulders are still pretty damaged along with that knife wound. Doctor Tofu said relax, so relax." The youngest Tendo daughter insisted, pushing Ranma back onto the couch. It was a testament to how hurt he actually was that she succeeded easily.

"Yeah, whatever. How's Ucchan doing?"

"Not bad, according to Tofu." Nabiki's response came from behind the pigtailed man, and he looked back with a slight wince at the tugging of stitches. Nabiki moved around front in a gesture of kindness with only a slight smirk. "Actually she remembers nothing from the day of the kidnapping, and she apparently doesn't even have a subconscious memory of the training. We had Shampoo walk into her room in cursed form and our favorite sister in law didn't bat an eye."

"How's that work?" Akane asked. "You'd think she'd be worse then Ranma or Himeko!"

"Cologne thinks that her mind just refused to allow her to remember anything, and Tofu agrees with her."

"It's possible. People have been known to develop localized memory losses from traumas and prove never to be able to recover the memories. If she did that she's lucky." Ranma nodded as he spoke. "What?"

The Tendo sisters just continued to stare for a moment. "That is still so weird. Maybe we SHOULDN'T have sent him to college." Nabiki muttered.

"Yeah, well… Seeing as he has three wives and a daughter, he does need a good job!" Akane grinned evilly. Strangely she'd gotten over the jealousy issues from Colognes announcement of the Amazon council's declaration of marriage. Of course part of that could come from the pained expressions on her 'husbands' face whenever anyone mentioned it.

All the 'Bride Brigade', as well as Nadoka and Himeko agreed that they were such cute little wrinkles around his eyes.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Can we go visit her now?"

"Actually we're moving her here." Nadoka, who'd entered just in time to see that cute expression, replied. "Tofu wants you to continue resting, but she'll be out by tomorrow, and ready to rest here. She's as bad a patient as you are apparently. However, there's another problem."

"What's that?"

"Stephanie checked the armor that Ukyo was wearing out today. She says it's identical to the guys she fought in America. We're bringing Maria over to Japan this weekend. It seems there's a conspiracy to create super powered girl martial artists, and we're hoping to work out why. I have to admit, the police haven't been much help."

"They don't have to be." Ranma growled while his blue eyes turned almost flint gray in rage. "Because if I ever meet the man responsible for this…. Let's just say Saffron will be impressed with the beating I give them."

CCCCCCCC

"Report Troika."

"My lord, the Kounji girl recovered both consciousness and her sanity and is reportedly healing from her injuries. Ranma Saotome is in slightly worse shape, but our spies suspect he'll be back in fighting form by the end of the week. I think we should strike now, and recover all three girls before that happens."

"No Troika. I think I have a better idea." The shadowy form of Lord Hakama turned in his chair, still never allowing the light to touch his face as he considered his lieutenant.

"Send an invitation. I would like to meet Mr. Saotome and this 'Nerima wrecking crew'."

AN: A cliff hanger, then a cliff that wasn't hanged with anything. Cologne was impressed though.

Next time: A few things revealed to get the plot rolling. I even, believe it or not, kind of know where this is going, though it might turn into a multiple book story since I'm reaching a good climax soon. But hey, those of you who read "When a Senshi's Away, the Cats will Play." Kind of know how I am about that.

Oh, and if you haven't and don't mind Sailor Moon (Or like cats) go read it. Shameless plug, but what the hell!

Speaking of which, time to write the Artemis vs. Gaki smack down event!


	20. Catgirls revenge

Disclaimer: I have proof that I don't own Ranma ½. I'm not Japanese. I'm male. And… um… I can't draw, so there.

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter 19

Ukyo sighed, looking out the window of the Saotome home. The birds nest in the tree caught her attention for a few moments, but she jerked away when she realized she was staring.

She hadn't been completely honest with Dr. Tofu. While she honestly couldn't remember any details in specific about her "training" in the neko-ken she could remember a face, a voice, and a feeling of hatred for that person. She couldn't remember his name, or even describe him to another person. Perversely it was like trying to describe a family member. He just looks like… him.

She also had concealed some of the other side effects of her training. She didn't have the fear of cats Ranma or Himeko seemed to suffer from, she didn't get away unscathed. She kept catching herself focusing on things like the bird nest, or sudden movements. She had even found herself entertained for over ten minutes by a piece of string. Granted Ranma had played with the same piece of string for a few minutes not long after (It was hanging from the living room sofa, and he'd been lounging on the floor.) but no where near as long.

Her eyes turned to the steel bakers peel in the corner and sighed. That was the other side effect. Her hand to hand skills had increased, even Ranma had said so, but her traditional weapons just seemed awkward in her hands. Part of her almost yelled "What good is fighting if you can't FEEL your enemy when you hit them?"

The cat might not take her over like her pigtailed husband and ersatz daughter, but its presence was no less felt. Perhaps more so in her case. Even Shi sometimes seemed more human then Ukyo felt.

Absently she wondered if she should find some sort of cat girl outfit for Akane. Why should she be left out of the feline family values? Other then one of them should probably not fall asleep anytime there were more then a few quiet minutes and warm sunlight.

Sighing Ukyo turned back to the window and out over the street. Then she froze.

Him. Walking up the street like he owned the place. His name came back as a growl deep in the chef's throat.

"Trroika…"

* * *

Ranma really wanted to know how the hell he was in this position. Sure, Ukyo moving in made sense, after all she was hurt. He could even grasp Akane moving in to help care for the convalescing martial artists. She was surely strong enough to help Ranma move around, since his knee had finally given out in spite of his attempts to hide the injury.

And granted, his mother did have a lot of extra mouths to feed and Shampoo staying for a time would make sense to help with the cooking (A Saotome's stomach only grows more rapacious when the Saotome is injured. Apparently the Kounji family had the same trait.). And yeah, sure, shi goes wherever Shampoo is for any length of time.

But then, out of the blue, his mother declares that she and Genma were going to be staying at the Tendo's for a while. Then, in a blur of large packages and some off hand comments about some grandson's to go with the granddaughters, they were gone and Ranma had a strange suspicion that they weren't coming back!

Then, in an insane twist of fate Ranma found himself actually trying to maintain order in what was quickly becoming "his" house in his mind!

"Okay Shi, one more time. What did your mother tell you about jumping out at me and Himeko when you're a cat?"

"That it was funn… I mean that I shouldn't do it." Shi was a great liar when she wasn't thinking about it. Sadly when she was thinking about it, she made Ranma look like a card shark.

Sadly, Ranma suspected the first part was the truth. "Well it's not fun, it's not funny, and you definitely should not do it. Now go out and wash the walk." The girl huffed, which compared to Ranma's relationship with is father was rather polite, and stormed off. "And with cold water young lady." He yelled after her, suspecting he was going to be her next target. '

"Stop snickering, both of you." Ranma said, not even turning to look at Akane and Shampoo. "Himeko, would you please let go of the ceiling fan now?"

The young girl looked down at her father. "If she does that again, can I PLEASE drop a bag over her and put her in the dryer?"

"No. Although if Shampoo does it to you again." Ranma shrugged suggesting that was between her and Shampoo.

"Bad husband, teach daughter to abuse Shampoo." The laughter not only distracted the Amazon from her greatly improved language skills, but caused the comment to loose some punch.

"Whatever." He walked towards the stairs of the Saotome house, figuring he'd visit his cute, quiet bride. He shivered with even the thought of that.

He stepped onto the front step when his highly tuned danger sense kicked in. Sadly, between the cane he was reluctantly using, his weak leg, and still very sore arms he couldn't dodge, in spite of the warning, and was ran over by a blue and brown streak of rage.

"Ucchan?" Ranma grunted, and struggled to his feet, chasing her at his best speed, Shampoo and Akane hot on his heels.

They got to the houses gate, to find Ukyo attacking a large, but fast moving man with a mindless rage, screaming every time he blocked her attacks. The entire group of spectators froze as they realized she was going straight for kill shots, and not the submission techniques favored by even Shampoo.

Then she over extended one punch and the large man delivered a savage blow to her stomach, spinning her around and grabbing her around the neck, in a perfect position to snap her neck. Ukyo froze, and he stopped, looking at the assembled martial artists.

"Ranma Saotome I presume?" he said, a slight Russian accent tinting his voice.

"That's me. Now let Ukyo go!" Ranma tossed the cane aside. He wasn't at his best, but he was still not going to let this man hurt his oldest friend.

"All in good time." Troika replied, and tossed an envelope towards Ranma with the hand not gripping Ukyo's chin. Ranma ignored it and let it fall to the asphalt. "My employer whishes to invite you to dinner. He wants to discuss the girls you've been taking in, and the plans you've set upon their ears. The number to call is in the card."

What neither man was watching was Ukyo. She had frozen, which gave them both the impression that she was trying not to anger the man who could easily snap her neck in the position they were in. They were wrong, she was frozen in horror for a few second, not at the danger she was in but at the idea of being CAUGHT again. Then she had started to get angry.

"What makes you think your leaving here after what you did to Ukyo?" Ranma demanded. He'd pieced together why the girl had responded so violently. It wasn't hard.

"Because you can't stop me in your current condition." Troika gestured towards the roofs around them. "And my associates might take it poorly."

Ukyo had already spotted the black clad men on the roofs. They wouldn't slow down the wrecking crew for long, but long enough for Troika's escape. Low in her throat a growl started. Troika ignored it.

"How can you do these things?" Shampoo demanded. Not looking at troika, instead favoring the men on one roof. Akane had turned to watch the others while Shi and Himeko moved to the middle of the crowd. It was a relatively safer position, but one that allowed them to help if things turned bad.

Troika shrugged. "It must be done Amazon. You will understand when my employer speaks with you."

Ranma's eyes shifted, noticing Ukyo's posture for the first time. She was balling her hands up in fists. "Don't…"

"Don't what, Mr. Saotome?" Troika asked, thinking he was the one Ranma was addressing. He was wrong, but Ukyo completely ignored the pigtailed boy.

"TROIKA!" She screamed, spinning more lithely then she'd ever moved before, slipping free of his grasp and delivering a savage uppercut punch to his stomach. The Russian stumbled back with a gasp of pain.

Ukyo's hands came back bloody, with four two inch claws of chi flickering up from her knuckles.

The ninja's attacked and everything was chaos for several minutes. In the end three men and one woman were unconscious on the ground, and the first family of martial arts mayhem was breathing hard.

Troika had escaped, but obviously not unscathed.

"Shampoo, take the girls to the Nekohatten and tell Cologne what happened." Ranma commanded, his tone brooking no argument as he picked up the envelope he'd earlier ignored. "I need you to go tell our parents what happened Akane. Meanwhile me and Ukyo are going to go see Doc Tofu." Ranma's eyes had never left the chef as he spoke. "Why didn't you tell us?"

She stared at her hands, which were just now releasing the most devastating effect of the Neko-ken. "I… I didn't know I could do that. I was just so… angry and scared."

Ranma nodded, understanding more then almost anyone. "We'll talk to doc, make sure this isn't going to send you back towards the cat. Then we'll see about this dinner. It seems we'll finally get those answers we've been wanting, after all."

He crushed the envelope, to angry to care about its condition.

* * *

AN: Okay, so most of this was building up. Now come on, who expected UKYO to be the first to use the Neko-ken while sane?

Note: From things I've seen I'd guess the "True" Neko-ken probably extends about a foot from the fists. Ukyo, however, is far weaker then the average survivor of the Neko-ken (Ranma, since both she and Himeko were helped back to sanity by ki techniques and he only got a comfy lap.) she's not tapping its full potential. At least not yet.


	21. For better and for worse

Disclaimer: About all I've got are rice and two pickles, so I sure as heck don't own this. (Scuffle sound) NO, I DON'T HAVE A DAUGHTER YOU FAT PANDA! (Scuffling)

Ranma-papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter Twenty

"She'll be alright, I think. At least no worse off then you would be after using the Neko-ken." Doctor Tofu removed his glasses, considering his words carefully. "Honestly, she's handling it all better then she probably should be. Ukyo's a tough one."

Ranma nodded, sitting back in his seat. They were both sitting in the chiropractor's office, off his lobby, discussing Ranma's "Wife" while Akane and Shampoo were helping her dress. The attack that morning had forced him to seriously consider their lives and how complex they were. He'd also tried to figure out a way to simplify them.

"We can't fight the forces these guys have with me and Ukyo both on the mend." Ranma grudgingly admitted. "The old ghoul can watch the girls, and with the freak over there too I doubt Saffron could threaten them. I just don't know what to do when I get to this dinner." He'd called the number while Tofu was treating Ukyo. Of all the things he'd expected, a cheerful secretary hadn't been it. Two days from now he'd be eating dinner with someone who tried to kill his oldest friend (And third wife. Ukyo was satisfied with that as long as she got to be the cute one, according to Nadoka) and the pig tailed boy didn't anticipate it being a quiet meal.

"Two days isn't enough time for you to heal from those stab wounds. They might be shallow compared to what could have happened, but they are still slow to mend." Tofu sighed. "And Ukyo's going to take even longer. She's got a couple of infections that are flaring back up."

"Damn it doc, there has to be something we can do. Some… weird martial arts doctor trick or something."

"Instant healing is the realm of magic Ranma, and while I'm familiar with the occult, I'm no wizard. I don't know anything that can help you."

"I… wait, magic?" Ranma's eyebrows rose, and then he grinned. "Doc, would you mind crashing at my place. I'd feel better if a guy was there to back up Shampoo and Akane while I was gone."

Tofu listened, and watched as Ranma rose and began to limp for the door. "I can, but where are you going?"

"To see a friend, who probably has no idea who I am."

* * *

Ranma was strangely put out that the train ride only took a couple of hours. He'd remembered coming to Rugenzawa the last time, and thanks to how much hiking he'd had to do it had taken a day and a half to catch up to the tomboy.

He limped, less then he should have been but he'd risked actually taking a dose of the pain medications Tofu had prescribed in spite of his general avoidance of chemicals in general (Kodachi had beat that into him.). He felt a little less aware then usual, but all in all it wasn't as bad as he'd feared it could have been.

He hefted the light pack he'd taken the time to pack, and hurried through the village and into the forest with his eyes peeled for any traps. He managed to avoid all but one of them, and that one flung a rock at his head. Painful, but it didn't open up any previously existing wounds. Besides, the pain reliever ironically deadened that as well.

He found the old hut, and nearly punched a hole in the wall when he discovered the note on the door. "We've gone to Hawaii. Come back next week." The note also had yesterdays date on it.

"You've got to be kidding me." Ranma muttered. Wandering around in a woods filled with stupidly huge animals was bad enough, but without a guide it was just nuts. Of course he was going to do it anyway, but still it was crazy.

So the crazy martial art's master limped further into the forest, and towards his goal.

* * *

"Troika, are you recovered?" (Troikas boss) asked as the Russian stepped into the room. The bigger man grunted, fingers brushing the bandages covering his healing injuries.

"About as recovered as can be expected." He replied. "Did the boy respond?"

"He did, and we arranged to meet in two days. I'm hoping we can come to some sort of understanding. What of the other girls."

"The survivors have all been delivered on time, and I've… rewarded their trainers." Troika smiled darkly. "None of them seemed happy with their rewards, but I doubt you'll hear any complaints."

The mastermind of the whole situation nodded, sitting back in the comfortable leather desk chair he occupied, folding his hands in his lap. "Then the time draws near. It's interesting to me that he would choose the night it's self to meet with us. I suspect there is something prophetic about that."

"Perhaps, but what's that mean for the plan, and ourselves?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."

* * *

"Why the heck didn't he take anyone with him if it was that dangerous?" Stephanie demanded of Akane Tendo, when the shorter haired girl explained where Ranma Saotome had disappeared to. "I mean, setting aside rather I even believe you about the giant animals, which I'm not sure I do. How could he be crazy enough to think he can handle a trip through the wilderness when he's in as bad a shape as he is right now?"

"Cause he's an idiot." Akane assured the American. "I offered to go, and god knows I know that forest better then him but he wouldn't hear of it. He said something about wanting as many people here as possible to protect the girls, but still…"

"Shampoo knows husband too stubborn for words… but even for him, this is pushing it." Shampoo muttered, concern causing a bit of her old speech patterns to slip into the conversation. "But he has a point, the girls need the protection. Too, too many ninjas attacked our house, and could attack here."

After discussing strategies for protecting the girls, it had been decided that everyone would move into the Tendo Dojo as a fairly defensible location. "How's Maria settling in, by the way." Akane asked.

"She's about as well as you might expect considering her life up till we found her." Stephanie sighed. "Frankly I'd have been happier if she'd gotten upset about the move after she'd just gotten settled in, but dad says she just calmly packed her back pack and was ready to go in an hour. How the heck have you worked such magic with Himeko."

Nodoka, who'd been sipping tea while the other girls talked around the Tendo dining table, chuckled. "With my son, I'm not surprised. He has a way with women." She winked at the other two Saotome wives. "Also, she got Shi, Shampoo, Cologne, and Kasumi along with him to help."

"Not to mention the world's biggest teddy bear." Akane giggled, pointing outside where the four young girls where playing an energetic, and martial arts oriented variant, of hide and seek with the long suffering 'Mr. Panda' in the backyard. Maria giggled softly as she landed a hit on Genma with the Shanai's they were using to 'tag' the other players, apparently slipping through the bears defenses. "Who knew Mr. Saotome would do so well with little girls? He's a softy at heart."

"Let's ignore Happosai." Cologne cackled as she pogoed in, just in time to see the girls tackle the ancient grandmaster of Anything Goes as he popped out of his own hiding place, ostensibly trying to get away. Granted, none of the Shanai's landed a blow, but the old pervert never did have any luck getting away from martial artist women, even those to young for his 'refined tastes'.

None of the girls noticed the black clad man, hiding in the eves of a house across the street. He was watching the girls, both older and younger, carefully. His Masters would want to know details of how well defended they were.

* * *

"Damn, stupid, dragon with a head for a butt!" Ranma yelled, well past the point of making any sense as she, for the martial artists current form was definitely female, dodged the Orachi's seventeenth attempt to devour her.

This time the Saotome heir hadn't bothered with any costumes and instead had just lobbed a Moko Takibasha into the water as a wake up call. It had worked, and managed to severely piss off the dragon thing.

In spite of the annoying situation he'd found himself in, the pigtailed martial artist smiled even as the unsuspecting monster lined up for the eighteenth attempt at her soft, delicate flesh.

Like clockwork the monster dove forward with all it's mobile heads, and for all the world it seemed, from it's perspective, that the tasty snack hasn't noticed the latest attack. It didn't bother taking to close of a look at where she was standing.

At the last moment Ranma jumped straight up into the air and let the heads plow straight into a rock outcropping. Half a second after the impact, the rock shelf in question dropped onto the heads, trapping the whole monster, the cries of the butt head (Ranma chuckled to herself at that thought) the only noise the monster managed to make.

Almost negligently Ranma walked over and brushed the broom she'd brought over it's nose, then walked away whistling.

An hour later he sighed, now male, as he removed the poultice he'd made from his now fully healed leg. Ranma looked at the watch he'd bought in the train station before leaving Nerima, and growled. He'd only barely have enough time to clean up once he got home before heading out to this dinner. But it couldn't be helped.

* * *

Troika looked at the group of ninja's his employer had sent with him carefully. There were twenty of them, twenty of the best, and he still wasn't sure if they'd be enough. It was past midnight however, and surprise would be on their side.

"Fetch our Master his property. Recover the girls."

They moved in unison at the order, jumping over the walls of the Tendo Dojo.

AN:Okay, a loong time in coming, but here is the next chapter. Ironically I thought I'd already posted the first half of this. Who knew?


	22. Steak, with a side of Ninja

Disclaimer: Ummmm… The absence was not part of a long plot to get control of the Ranma ½ franchise. Much as I might regret it, I don't own much more then a few characters that show up in here. Heck, I might not own them as well. Oh well.

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo Mama

Chapter 21

Ranma cursed. Thanks to a train delay, he'd been forced to clean up as best he could in a station bathroom, and then had had to roof hop straight to the restaurant. He'd gotten a busy signal when he'd tried to call the Tendo home, and hadn't had time to wait and try to call again.

He reached the Restaurant, and burst through the door. The building was empty, except for one nervous looking waiter, ten men dressed in black pajamas, and one man in a white suit, sipping a glass of wine. "Mr… Mr. Saotome?" The waiter asked.

"That's me."

"Mr. Shimaka was… waiting for your… arrival…" The frightened man stuttered out. "Right this…"

"I see him." Ranma said, walking by the waiter, and to the table. The man in the white suit stood up, smiling.

"Mr. Ranma Saotome, you're reputation does proceed you."

"Cut the crap. What the hell are you up to?"

The man smiled, and gestured at the chair across from his own. "Now now, no reason to be uncivilized. I took the opportunity to order you the largest steak on the menu. I understand you are well known for your appetite."

Ranma glared, but when he realized the man wasn't going to answer any question, and the problem of nearly a dozen ninja's surrounding him, forced the pig tailed young man to sit down. Shimaka joined him. "So, I'm sure you have questions…"

"What are you up to, having little girls trained and beat down at the same time. What kind of sick freak are you."

"I'm not a sick freak, as you put it, at all." The other man replied, not the least bit bothered by the accusation. "As a matter of fact, my reasons are the most noble possible."

"Yeah, sure. Ya know a guy named Genma?"

The other man just chuckled. "Not a high opinion of your father, I take it. Oh don't look surprised. I did some research on you."

"And I'm not trying to marry the girls off. I only, actually, need one of them. Tell me, boy, do you believe in magic?"

Ranma scoffed. "If you had done reseach…"

"Then I'd know about your curse. A silly question, but you must forgive me for it. After all, this is the sort of conversation you only see in a drama! Still, magic is the answer."

"I am the current head of a cabal of wizards. We have no name, no flashy titles, and we aren't spending our years trying to take over the world. We DID, however make one mistake, centuries ago."

"OH, just one? Do tell." Ranma snarked, ignoring the plate of food set in front of him by the terrified waiter. Saotome stomach or not, he wasn't hungry.

"Immortality. We decided we wanted to live forever, and committed the cardinal sin of negotiating with one of the Fae to do it." He shrugged. "All we had to do was find her a husband."

"Huh, her?"

"Listening? Good." The self proclaimed wizard chuckled. "Now this fae was from what they call the Unselie or 'dark' court, and they aren't generally very nice to humans who want immortality. We figured out, before we'd given her what she wanted, that she'd worked a small hitch into her spell. Something to the effect of 'I'll not come to take this gift back, until my marriage ends.'"

He took a bite of steak. "Now, an immortal being of Fae, and her soon to be husbands status as a normal, mortal human, made us think the phrase 'till death do us part' might just cause us some problems. Especially when one of my compatriots dug up her title of 'unweeping widow'. So, we tricked her."

"On her marriage night, as she was 'consummating' her marriage, we cast a spell that pulled them body and soul into a vessel of cold iron, so she couldn't willingly escape. We thought ourselves very clever."

"Then, ten years later, she broke free. It seems the cold iron destroyed her body, which led to her soul being released. She possessed my wife."

"This fae's power was so great, however, that she burnt out my wife's body in moments, and had to hop to another, and then another. It took us months to catch her, and when we did she'd found a human body that could survive the changes her fae power wrought."

"Unfortunately for us the power, and skill, of that body came with it. A Chinese Amazon, as luck would have it!"

"Of the original thirteen of us, all but seven were killed trapping her again, the bare minimum to do the job. Realizing the changes she caused to her host, we prepared for her, and met her again a decade later. This time we kidnapped a female martial artist to be the bait."

"Only the preparations allowed the three of us who survived to recast the spell, with the help of apprentices. Again, their strength was nearly too much. That's when I had an idea."

He sipped his wine, smiling as he realized the younger man was listening, raptly. "She showed the strengths, and weaknesses, of her hosts. You see, we only beat her the first time due to her poor tactics… she went after the female's of our cabal first, not realizing that they weren't the most powerful of us. The second woman suffered from a fear of heights, and she froze when she pursued me onto a cliff face."

"Right. The chick needs a strong body, but if you beat the girl she takes over so bad she's terrified of challenging whoever trained her she can't really threaten you."

"Exactly!"

"Right, I'm not seeing the nobility here. You're just covering your own butts."

"Actually…. You are right." He chuckled at the forceful face fault the boy suffered at that. "Of course, we now have over a thousand years of unique knowledge, and that would be lost if she was allowed to escape and kill us, so there is that…"

The sound of a cellular phone cheeping distracted him. He pulled it from his coat. "Yes? Ahh, good. I was just finishing, actually." He hung up. "Well, dinner has been pleasant. Now, I must be off."

"Oh, you aren't going anywhere….hey, what!" Ranma struggled, unable to move.

Shimaka chuckled, standing. "Sorry, but I can't have you delaying me. You see, midnight is when she'll escape. I am not a total bastard, however. If your Himeko isn't the one chosen, I'll make sure she is returned to your parents. You, of course, will have to die." He looked up, seeing the ninjas standing from their tables, one with a knife to the waiter's throat. "Dinner was excellent. The chief, sadly, already dead. Have a good evening."

He drifted out the door. The ten ninjas, Troika's best agents, moved towards Ranma, smiling darkly as he jerked free of the wizards spell.

Ranma just considered them, then lazily picked up a fork, and cut his steak. Taking a bite he sighed. "This is good!"

"You fool. Their going to kill us!" The terrified waiter yelled. He yelled again when knife and fork appeared, buried deeply into his captor's two arms. He staggered away as the man screamed and released him.

"No." Ranma said, kicking the table away, and standing up. "They are going to try."

* * *

Ranma landed in the back yard of the Tendo Dojo only fifteen minutes later. It was already too late. His mother, Doctor Tofu, and even Genma and Soun lay unconscious on the ground. Cologne and Happosai were looking over their wounds, the old man cursing.

"What the heck happened, old ghoul!"

"They baited a trap, and we fell for it." Cologne snarled. "They waved another girl in front of us like a flag, and I followed them. Another pack grabbed Kasumi and had Happi busy around the house when the main body came over the wall." She gestured at over two dozen unconscious ninjas. "The girls, and the fathers, did well, but they were grossly outnumbered. They took all of them."

Ranma nodded, and turned. "I'll get Mousse to come over here and help you out. Then I'll go after the girls, and bring them all back."

"Do you know where they went?"

Ranma smirked. "Of course. A little ninja told me."

Then he was gone.

AN: Okay, I'm trying to get back into the flow of things here. I'm hoping this was fairly well done. I'm also hoping to post something for this at least once a week now. I have tried before, and failed before, however. So we'll see.


	23. Rituals, Ninja's, and Wizards oh my!

Disclaimer: My Preciou.... oh, wait, wrong fandom. I don't own Ranma 1/2. Thanks for visiting.

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter 22

"Listen, Saotome… Gods know we aren't friends, but you are going to need help if the girls are hurt!"

Ranma, who was walking up the stairs to the Amazons living quarters in the Cat Café turned and looked Mousse in the eyes. "And I'm going to trust you why? Hell, I'm amazed I haven't gotten a knife in my back over Shampoo as it is!"

"There are… other factors to consider now." Mousse temporized. "And to save them, I think I can put aside my distaste for you."

"Fine. I don't have time to argue." Ranma continued up the stairs, and to Colognes bed chamber door.

"What are you doing, anyway?"

"Gambling."

"What does…"  
"Where the hell am I now!" Ryoga's voice nearly shook the building, and caused Ranma to smile.

"Right on time. Go grab Ryoga before he gets lost again. We'll want his help too."

Mousse frowned, but turned to chase after the lost boy. Ranma, with a sigh, slipped into the old womans door.

* * *

"So basically they plan to sacrifice one of the girls." Ryoga commented, seething. The other two had explained as they ran across the city. "And to get to them we're going to have to fight through a sky scraper full of ninjas, only to fight wizards at the top."

"Yep, that sums it up."

"Damn it Ranma." Ryoga smirked, suddenly. "And I didn't get you nothing." His grin was malevolent, and promised a titanic amount of pain for someone.

"Did you miss the part about a time limit Hibiki! We have till midnight, if Ranma's ninja friend wasn't lying, and it's already 10:30! That's less then two hours." Mousse pointed out.

Ranma started walking towards the entrance, and the suddenly very worried looking guards visible at the doors. "Then we had better get started."

* * *

Troika smiled as he watched the monitor. The battle in the lobby was everything he could have hoped for.

Ranma, the boy called Mouse, and a third boy his people had identified as Ryoga Hibiki, were ripping through his men like a tornado passing through a trailer park. They were leaving as much destruction as one, too.

"We can't afford an interruption, Troika." The leader of the Cabal stated. A woman, the only other present Cabal member, stood behind him and nodded in agreement.

"My Lord, My Lady, I shall go to stop these welps myself."

"Good. We didn't enhance you mystically to hold you in reserve. Lady Zann will guard the ritual chamber. I'd prefer to send her with you, but with Lord Hoffenstager stuck in Europe we are short handed."

"It shall not be a problem." Troika stated, and with a bow turned to the elevator.

As the doors closed the two wizards walked to the Golden doors of their ritual chamber, and the prisoners inside.

"Let us go, you bastard!" Akane yelled, pulling at the chains locking her to the floor. "Can't you see what you're doing here?" Shampoo, holding a nearly catatonic Ukyo, growled feraly next to her.

"Garunting my immortality, as well as that of my associates." The mage answered calmly. "Ms. Kounji's condition is unfortunate, but those of you who survive shall be released unharmed. We aren't barbarians."

"No, you're worse." Stephanie snapped, causing both wizards to chuckle.

"Oh, I disagree." Nabiki, the only calm one, and the older girl who'd most taken on the job of calming the younger, scared girls around them, commented calmly. "This definitely has the feel of Genghis Kahn at his best… Or worst."

"That being said, I'm sure we can work out some sort of deal." The middle Tendo finished.

"I'm intrigued." The immortal man stated, honestly. "What do you suggest?"

"Keep Shampoo." Nabiki replied. Both cabal memebers were surprised that the purple haired amazon didn't seem surprised by that offer. "You need a strong woman with an easily manipulated weakness, and her Jusenkyo curse…"

"Would give us a tenth of a second." Zann interrupted. "The Widow is a Fey, and since Jusenkyo is a hotbed of fey magic, she'll have no problem taking control of it. Ms. Kounji's terror at being captured and restrained would be nothing compared to the Widow's fear of being trapped as a soul in an iron ball. As for Akane… well a rage disorder isn't much of a weakness from our point of view."

"The American girl has no such weaknesses, and you aren't strong enough to draw her interest Ms. Tendo." The witch grinned. "However, I am impressed. You came up with this offer in the ten minutes we were gone?"

"Yes." Nabiki stated coldly, her voice as cold as nitrogen.

"And got Shampoo to agree to it. I'm impressed! We could offer you a position with our corporate front after all of this is over, you'd make an obscene amount of money."

"No thanks. I think I'll stay away from blood money."

"Pity." The male mage commented. "Now, since we can't have you conscious and an option during the ritual…" He pushed a button on a remote he carried, causing thousands of volts to flow through the older girls, causing them to slump to the floor, out cold.

"Mother!" Shi cried out, catching Shampoo, while Himeko managed to field both Nabiki and Akane. Shi glared at the man.

Himeko, also glaring, snarled out "Ranma will kill you!"

The leader of the cabal frowned, considering the girls. Then he raised a hand and cried out "Levin Bolt!" A bolt of energy, a mystical tazer, sent them both tumbling into the darkness after their ersatz family.

"Why'd you do that? WE need as many candidates as possible!"

"They were to strong willed. Now leave, I need to start the ritual, and you need to grantee it's completion."

AN: Ryoga Vs. Troika! Next time!


	24. Troika VS Ryoga

Ranmapapa, Shampoomama

AN: I own NOTHING! NOTHING! Well, except like… all the original characters in here… but you can use them. I don't mind.

Chapter 23

Ranma watched as the last ninja fell, wrapped in enough chains to tie a super-tanker to a dock. "You've gotten better." He observed.

"Thanks, I've been working out." Mouse replied, kicking the ninja in the head. "So, do you figure the evil wizard cabal is on the roof, or in the basement."

Ryoga chimed in, tossing the unconscious Ninja he'd forgotten he was still shaking over his shoulder. "Basement. Has to be the basement, right?"

Ranma and Mouse considered the fanged boy for a moment, before turning to look at eachother. "Definitely the roof." The Chinese boy commented.

"Oh yeah." Ranma agreed.

"Hey! It could totally be the basement."

"P-Chan… that'd mean you knew where something was!"

"Don't Call Me P-chan!"

The ding of an arriving elevator car stopped the impending argument. All three boys turned to look as Troika, wearing jeans and pulling off his buttoned up shirt, stepped out of the car. Ranma chuckled, causing the Russian to pause. "What, might I ask, is so funny."

Ranma basically ignored him. "See, it's even marked Express to the Penthouse!"

"OH shut the hell up." Ryoga grumbled.

Troika took a moment to consider the statement, but quickly determined it wasn't important. "My masters would very much appreciate it if you would end this madness now. You're interfering in matters you can't understand."

"So what?" Ranma demanded.

"We do it all the time." Ryoga observed.

"I was pretty sure it was Saotome's hobby, actually." Mouse admitted, receiving a nod from Ryoga and, reluctantly, Ranma.

Troika sighed. "So I take it you will not stop. That violence is neccissary."

Mouse… blind as he was… still took the time to look around the room. "Um… It looks like the aftermath of the Matrix rescue fight in here. Do you really think we are going to shy away from a fight?"

"No… but I am a civilized man. I wanted to give you a chance."

Mouse and Ranma surged forward, ready for the fight, only to come against the iron rods of Ryoga's arms. "No. I'll handle him. You go on ahead."

"What? No way, man. We ain't gonna abandon you. This guys not as weak as he looks." Ranma said.

Ryoga ignored the indignant "Weak." From Troika, instead speaking to the other two. "You're going to have to deal with wizards, so you don't need any more fighting than you'll get up there Ranma. Healed up or not. And Mouse can wipe the floor with these pathetic Ninja's. Let me deal with the hired help." Ryoga smirked. "Besides, I'm heading for the basement when this is done. Then I'LL rescue the girls and you'll be on the roof all pissed off."

"Dude. They're not in the basement."

"Just go. The stairs are over there." Ryoga pointed.

Both boys frowned, but nodded and ran the opposite direction from what Ryoga directed, straight towards the stairs. Troika flickered, moving to intercept at inhuman speeds.

He got an umbrella in the gut for his troubles. "Please… you're no where near as fast as Ranma." The lost boy observed, watching the Russian stagger back. "Tougher than you look, though. Most people would have gone down from that."

"I've been reinforced by the mystic powers of my Masters." Troika stated, ignoring the other boys for the surprisingly powerful one in front of him. He opened his senses and frowned, sensing the same flexibility of aura he'd seen in Ranma and the Akane girl, if less developed. "I have skin like granite and muscles of bundled steel. I'm a former Russian Special Forces officer, and I won't hesitate to kill you. What, little boy, do you think you have to challenge me."

Ryoga shrugged, and slipped his arms out of his backpacks straps, dropping it on the ground. Troika took a step back when the marble flooring gave way, leaving a inch deep crater around the heavy pack. "Actually, I just didn't want to run up all the stairs. Just between you and me, I'd probably have ended up in the girls bathroom or something. Family curse…" He slid into a battle stance, umbrella gripped tightly. "Now, Troika… yeah, Ranma told me your name… I have only one more thing to say to you."

"What's that, whelp."

"Prepare to die!"

Mouse froze as the sound of an explosion, most likely the first real blow thrown in the fight between Ryoga and Troika, blew the door in several stories beneath Ranma and himself. "Are you sure…"

"Ryoga will be fine. He knows better than to fight a loosing battle if he gets into trouble and, honestly, I think he can take Ruskie down there." Ranma said, grabbing his arm and pulling him along. "Even if he can't win, P-chan can take a beating long enough for us to get back down here to him. Now come on."

Both elder Wrecking Crew boys bounced up the stairs, taking entire flights the way a hurrying secretary might take one. Groups of Ninja's, hurrying to stop them, were barely noticed in passing (Except for receiving savage beatings).

Finally they came to the top flight, a full story below the penthouse. "What the hell!" Ranma yelled.

"This is common, Saotome." Mouse sighed. "The Great and Good… also known as Rich and Wasteful… don't want to be bothered. There's probably a private flight of stairs somewhere."

"Well how the hell do we get in?"

Mouse didn't reply, Instead firing two dagger ended chains into the walls high above their heads. Ranma watched in quiet amazement (Which he'd deny later) as Mouse ascended up the chains at a speed only slight slower than he launched them. "Been watching Batman?"

"Christina Bale should study Hidden Weapons." Mouse remarked. Before releasing one chain, and pulling out one of Shampoo's Bombori. "But for now, I'm focusing on another Amazon technique."

"Wall smashing?"

"Um…." Mouse paused, looking embarrassed.

"What?"

"Technically the technique is called… well."

"Go on…"

Mouse sighed. "HUSBAND HUNTING DOOR KNOCK!"

The wall exploded inwards, followed by Mouse. Ranma jumped up, landing behind the blind duck boy who was already staring down something like two dozen ninja's. "Tell no one Saotome. Tell no one, or I swear I'll kill you."

Ranma only grinned.

"DAMN YOU SAOTOME!" Mouse popped a sword, taking a swipe at Ranma.

"Hey, you said no attempts to kill me!"

"What… oh… sorry. Habit." Mouse turned to the now very confused Ninja's, and bowed. "I apologize for making you wait."

Then he started lobbing explosives.

Ryoga shoved himself out of the rubble of the wall, blood trickling down his chin from a busted lip. "That felt like a babies kick."

Troika, breathing hard snarled. "What! I sent you through a support column! There's no way that didn't hurt you! How are you even standing!"

"Don't know much about Amazons do you."

"I know that the purple haired one fell easily enough." Troika snarled. "Just like the others…"

"Yeah, how many of them did Akane destroy before going down. Me and Ranma, we have a bet."

"Akane, eh… not worried about the others? I thought you were interested in that Akari girl now, Hibiki."

"How do you know about her." Ryoga snarled.

Troika laughed, circling around the lost boy, taking the chance to catch his breath. "I know all about all of you, Hibiki. I know you didn't get here before your little brother got himself lost again. I know you haven't seen your parents in… was it six years? I even know about P-chan… and about what happened when Akane found out…"

"You shut up!"

Troika just laughed. Experience taught him an angry enemy was a dead one. "She threw you out in the street… several blocks away from the reports I've gotten. You and Ranma… but Saotome was allowed back in almost immediately. I took you… what… six months? And saving her sister from getting hit by a car? All Saotome had to do was apologize. How is that fair."

Troika could feel the rage radiating off of him. "But you got back in… no reason for depression… though now their married. Did you hear about that?"

Ryoga took a step forward, rage aura radiating around him.

"And Akari… you're still so unsure of her… Still not certain… Haven't proposed even though she's so willing. Because you're still hung up on the Tendo girl. Pathetic."

"You shut up."

"Make me."

Ryoga surged forward, a reckless charge. Troika easily dodged both blows, sending a knee into Ryoga's gut. Hide of Granite met Hide of granite and Ryoga bent over, the air rushing out of his lungs. A double axe handle, primitive but effect, drove the lost boy into the ground.

"And here you are, left behind because you can't even find the penthouse when there are signs everywhere." Troika mocked, driving a booted foot into the back of Ryoga's neck. "Abandoned by your friends because you're useless… and now you're going to die in a puddle of your own blood. How's it feel." He mocked, driving the foot into Ryoga's ribs.

Ryoga muttered something. "What was that? I can't hear you boy!" Troika mocked, toeing him over onto his back.

"I said… you need to work on your kicks. SHI SHI HOKODAUN!"

Troika took the vile green blast directly in the chest, flying into the ceiling before dropping back to the floor. Desperately he struggled to get back to his feet, looking up barely in time to protect himself from another depression blast, sliding back ten feet.

"You're right. I'm always getting lost." Ryoga declared, delivering a second blast, without bothering to even call out its name. "I failed Akane as a friend just by not telling her the truth." Another blast. "And Saotome seems to get everything so easily!" a fourth blast, sending Troika into a wall. Calmly Ryoga flipped open his pack. "There's a thing, though…"

Troika didn't say anything, didn't speak. He gasped for breath, desperate to be ready, to dodge the next hit. "how can he be so powerful… he should be lost.. unfocused…"

Ryoga pulled a ring case out of his pack, snapping it open. "I'm on my way to Akari… and this time I don't think I'm going to get lost. Thanks for helping me vent that, man… and for reassuring me she's willing… Now I feel very, very confident about it all!"

Ryoga's free hand came up, a bright blue sphere of light forming in his hand.

"No! You… You can't do that!" Troika screamed, trying to realign his Ki Sheild but his own terror making him slow.

Ryoga didn't respond, except to say "Mouko Takibasha."

Troika's world filled with blue light… then went dark.

AN: Okay, yeah… I admit it. Took a while. But this one is a beefier installment than some past ones. And I figured, why shouldn't Ryoga get his girl, huh… well, that's assuming he can find her. He's ALWAYS sure he'll find his way. Course this time… maybe he will.


	25. Mouse, Ninja's, and Witches

AN: It didn't take me a year or… more… to get back! Yay! Still don't own anything, though.

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter 24

"Go on ahead, Saotome. I'll handle these fools!" Mouse yelled, having run out of bombs with the first batch of "ninjas" and having quickly resorted to chains, blades, and duck potty's.

Ranma, back to back with the blind boy, delivered a round kick that scythed through three of the black clad foot soldiers. "Dude, there's like, fifty of these guys. I'm not leaving you alone here!"

"We don't have time for you to pretend nobility for my sake." Mouse retorted, his own chains pulling two men together with enough force to break bone. "The girls need you to come now, and whatever's waiting at the end of this gaudy hallway, we both know I'm not going to be able to help against it."

Ranma frowned. Hearing Mouse admit that, even though the Pigtailed Boy thought it was true, worried him. "Don't go getting crazy, man. We might both need to be there."

Mouse snorted, and threw down his last explosive, Both Teenaged martial artists jumping back, and the concussion blowing the ninja's away from them. "What ever happened to 'Ranma Saotome never loses!'. Don't make me have to respect you now, Ranma."

"Whatever."  
"Go. I'll catch up with you when I can, or maybe I'll leave you to your fate and go find Ryoga. If you loose we'll at least be able to toast over your corpse."

"There's the psychopath I know and vaguely tolerate." Ranma muttered. "But seriously, you can't handle this many!"

"No. This few can't handle an Amazon. Now go!"

Ranma hesitated only a second, but finally he jumped up, into the high vaulted ceiling and onto the gilded, and somewhat war damaged, chandelier. He swung from it to the next in the hallway, far to high for the more mundane martial artists below him to reach.

One drew a knife, intending to throw it, only to receive a shuriken in his wrist for his troubles. Mouse, now holding all the black clad warriors attention, drew two curved broadswords from his sleeves. "You're fight is with me, Gentlemen."

As one, the men charged.

Ranma heard the crowd behind him surge, and paused, considering returning to the melee behind him. Looking back he couldn't see Mouse, and wasn't sure how long, or even if, the Chinese boy could hold out. Shaking himself, Ranma made himself continue forward.

The hesitation probably saved his life.

A green fireball slammed into the chandeliers both behind and in front of him, vaporizing them. Ranma dove out of his own light fixture perch, landing on the thick, bordello red carpet beneath him to find two younger people, a man and woman of maybe twenty, cursing in front of a huge gold door.

"Man, you guys suck something awful. How'd you do that, though. I didn't even feel the ki build up!" Ranma commented, conversationally. Inside he was seething, but one of the credo's of his style was to piss of his opponents till they made a mistake.

"Magic, you idiot! Like this!" The woman all but screamed, flinging out her hands, lightning bolts flinging from her fingertips like darts. Ranma, fast as he was, couldn't beat the speed of light and found himself thrown back ten feet by the electrical force.

"Very good Selena. That should deal with him…" The male commented.

"Geesh that hurt." Ranma observed, startling both sorcerers by getting up, smoke rising from his Chinese shirt. "But really, should you be flirting with her in the middle of a fight? I mean, she's kind of cute for a psycho, but still!"

"How…. How are you… Flirting? I'm not…"

"Ignore him, Hiroshi. Fireball!"

This time, Ranma was prepared, and timed his dodge for her wrist motion instead of her 'weapon'. The green balefire ripped down the hallway, incidentally engulfing a pair of the ninja's fighting Mouse in flames forty feet away. He surged forward, sweeping the girls feet before having to jump away to avoid an electrical assault from the male wizard. "And seriously, did you just try to look up her robes? Are you a pervert or something?"

"No I didn't! Fireball."

Ranma dodged easily, the ball thrown in an angry hurry. "And you're looking at her butt right now, while she's getting up. I really think you'd be better off paying attention to me instead of her, jackass!"

"Hiroshi!" The witch whipped around. "Are you really staring at my ass instead of…gurk…"

Ranma watched her fall, his finger still extended from pushing a sleep pressure point. "Hope that doesn't spoil things for you man, but seriously… I hate hitting girls."

"I'll destroy you! FIR..ow, ow, ow…"

Ranma, twisting the man's wrist and arm around, forcing him to his knee's by the simple, basic method of grabbing a thumb and twisting, shook his head. "You have a choice. I knock you out, leave you here, and whenever and whatever happens to blow the top of the building up maybe kills both of you. Trust me, that always seems to happen in these things."

"OR, you pick your girlfriend up, run down those fire stairs… and where the hell do they come out anyway, damn it… and maybe buy her dinner to apologizing because you TOTALLY tried to look up her robes. Perv."

The wizard considered things. He could try throwing a spell with his other hand, but somehow he knew he'd never get it off. "I'll take her."

"Your word. Now."

"I promise!"

"I think you mean that. Now get out of here…" Ranma let go of his hand and walked towards the door, seeming to ignore him. The man began forming a fireball in his hand. "But if you even think of throwing that fireball at my back, I'll break every bone in your body, dumb ass."

The wizard picked up the girl, and ran for the door.

"Damn… My enemies are improving." He commented, before turning his full attention on the golden, barred door.

Mouse was in trouble, and part of him considered calling for help. Ranma was close enough, he could feel him… but his pride refused.

In all of the wrecking crew he'd improved the least since coming to Nerima. The Chinese boy had begun to doubt he'd even match Akane Tendo in a fight now, and this shamed him, or did, until he admitted his concerns to Cologne.

"Mouse… Do you really think you've not improved?" She'd chided him. "You've grown by leaps and bounds as a martial artist. That's the only reason I let you stay."

"The way you haven't grown, and have disappointed me, is you haven't grown as a person. Shampoo gets along with the girls when Ranma isn't around now, Ryoga and Ranma go through the motions of hating each other, but the recent reduction in construction crew staffing tells us all how much they've calmed. Tofu's getting over his "Kasumi-its". Only you've not managed to make a single real friend among them. I'd had hopes for you and Ryoga but… frankly… he's more honorable than you."

"So I'm a failure."

"Not yet." Cologne had said. "Not unless you choose to be one."

So he'd stayed in china, with his family and some old friends and realized… they'd grown past him too. His Sister had a daughter now, with good vision to add insult to injury. While everyone commented on how he hadn't changed. And he hadn't.

He found himself working out, and perversely drawing a lot of female attention, trying to think about it, Trying to understand what Cologne had meant about not yet, since everything ELSE sure made him feel like a failure.

It wasn't till he'd dodged his seventh bombori, confused as to why everyone seemed to be losing their weapons suddenly, when his Father walked up to him. "Girls, I need to talk to my son. Go away."

Moose, not wearing his glasses as usual, was confused by the seven or eight "Awww's" that chimed out at that moment, but didn't worry about it. "What do you need, father."

"Oh, just wanted to know if you wanted to talk." He'd said. "You look thoughtful."

"Something the elder… Cologne said to me." Mouse had replied, before telling him about the conversation. "I just don't get what she means!"

"She means you haven't chosen who you're going to be, yet. You're taking a little longer to mature than other kids you hang out with, but you're getting there. I'd say you're there now, frankly."

Mouse blinked. "WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST SAY THAT!"

"She's a woman."

Mouse (And he discovered later eight amazon girls listening in) face faulted straight into the soil. "What! It's true. They complicate things. Now man up, go back to Japan, and get over Shampoo. Before you get killed by a beach ball colored Mace, anyhow. You really can't survive being in the village, distracted like this."

"Oh, and ninja's are attacking you."

"Wait, he didn't say that." Mouse muttered, before the burn of a shallow cut, across his left arm, brought him back to the present.

"Oh. Right… I'm fighting ninja's!"

One of the black clad soldiers sweat dropped. "Did you really forget about that?"

"Yeah, sorry, I'm used to fighting better than you guys."

With a shrug, Mouse pulled his REAL last bomb out of his robes… or wherever he kept it. Even He wasn't sure. The five foot sphere, with digital timer, caused the floor to cave slightly with it's weight.

"What… Where the hell did you keep that thing!"

"Who care's! It's only got ten second….. Did that blind kid just get back on the elevator?"

"Oh god! RUN FOR THE FIRE ESCAPE!"

Ranma grumbled as heat and wind flapped at his back from the explosion. "Seriously. How does he hide that damn thing?" He muttered. "Oh well. I hate doing this…"

"YAMA SEN KEN!"

The door exploded inwards, leaving the path open to the final battle.

AN: I felt a rescue justifies the Locked Techniques. Also… I don't know why Mouse needed introspection but, let's be frank… NABIKI could take out Bush League ninja's. (Kasumi would smile them into submission and calling their mothers.)

On a related note, I'm thinking about going back and re-editing all my stories, maybe adding content to the chapters (not changing the stories, just polishing them). People complain about my grammar and I really think I should fix it. What do you all think?


	26. The Wizard, The Widow, and the Ranma

Authors Notes: I don't own Ranma 1/2 , though there are a few characters running around here that I DID invent.

Ranma-Papa, Shampoo-Mama

Chapter 25

Ranma strode into the gaping hole that had formerly been a door, only to pause when he found an elderly woman standing over the unconscious Shampoo, Akane, Ukyo, Himeko, Shi, and Stephanie. He paused. "What's going on here?"

We're giving you what you want." The woman, Ranma assumed she was a witch or something, replied. "It occurred to us that kidnapping them, tainted as they may be by anything you taught them, was a foolish risk. That includes making an unnecessary enemy of you. We hope this will mean we can go back to ignoring one another from now on. Take your women and go."

Ranma frowned, but leaned down and lightly slapped Shampoo's cheek, waking her up.

"Hunh… wha… SHI!"

"She's here. Start waking the others." Ranma ordered, stepping around the pile. "It can't be this easy." He accused the old woman.

"You fought through an army of Ninja's, and call this easy? Your life must be truly intriguing." The woman observed, pouring herself a glass of wine only a slight shaking of her aged hand showing her concern. "But as you like it, it can be this easy. Continued conflict benefits no one."

Ranma frowned, his ears catching a young girl scream from down the ornate hallway behind the sorceress. "So that's it? I just go."

"That's it."

"Ranma?" Akane spoke, the last "Adult" awake. "We can't get the girls awake."

"They are young, so more susceptible." The witch said quickly, seeing fire in the pigtailed man's eyes. "It will wear off in another hour or so."

"Take them and go." Ranma ordered.

"What about you?"

Ranma didn't turn to look at Akane, instead stalking towards the witch. "You still have girls down there." It wasn't a question.

The witch made the mistake of thinking it was. "No one you know. Take your women and go." The pigtailed martial artist could see her sweat.

"No." Ranma's hand lashed out, knocking the wine out of the woman's hand, his other striking a pressure point in her neck rendering her unconscious.

"I'm going after the other girls. Take them, and her, and go."

"I'm going too…" Ukyo said, but stumbled when she tried to stand.

"You're all still foggy from whatever they did." Ranma said. "And this ritual is poison for girls anyhow. Go. I'll be right behind you."

Ranma ran ahead, grabbing the decanter of wine as he shot forward.

Lord Shimaka finished christening the crying girls with the blessed water, setting it on a wooden pillar behind him. The girls were chained, the lever to release them near his hand. He would unlock the girls, let those not chosen flee, while the possessed writhed in a hopeless battle for her own soul.

The water was so, when she lost and her soul was pushed from her own body, the girl might find a reward more suited than the life she had led till then. Shimaka wasn't any stranger to guilt; he just rationalized it away with his rituals.

He was a monster, but he didn't think he was evil.

"Stop whatever you're doing, and let the girls go."

He whipped around, to find Ranma glaring at him from the chamber door.

"Take your women and go Saotome. You do not want to interfere."

"Yeah, cause that will convince me." Ranma growled. "Let them go. Your fairy chick won't choose them anyhow."

"Why not?"

Ranma poured the wine bottle over his, now her, head, tossing it aside as realization dawned on the wizards face. "Cause now I'm the most powerful woman in the room."

The girls found Mouse, Ryoga, and a horde of unconscious ninja's at the bottom of the fire stairs. "Where's Saotome?" Mouse demanded.

"He's saving the other girls. They had more and some glowing crystal." Akane replied.

"Some demon trap." Ryoga replied. "I'll go help him. Get the girls away, Mouse."

"Hibiki, you'll get lost!"

An explosion echoed down the stairs. "Naw, I'll just follow the noise." With that he ran up the penthouse stairs.

"Not if you die first." Shimaka snarled, hurling green balefire spheres at Ranma.

The Martial artist dodged easily, moving closer with every passing green orb. "You're too slow to hit me, old man." The pigtailed man mocked, only to gasp in surprise as he slammed backwards, into a wall and pinned.

"You can't dodge what you can't see, boy." The wizard snarled, rearing back with a lightning charged hand. The sound of cracking, from the crystal behind him broke his concentration.

Ranma flared his Ki, breaking the mystical bond and drawing his attention back. "How!" The wizard demanded.

"Figured there had to be a reason you used ninja's." Ranma replied. "And those martial artists drew her so well. Glad I was right."

Ranma surged forward, only to get blown back by a burst of wind, the wizard backing up further away to launch another fireball.

The Redheaded girl, realizing she was right next to the girls, rolled forward to meet it "Mouko Takibasha!"

Fire and Ki met, and then exploded, setting the carpet, podium, and roof alight.

It also destroyed the lever. "No!" Ranma yelled.

Before he could dive for the chain, to try to shatter it by hand, she was caught in another telekinetic grip, even as the flames moved closer to the scared children. She flew to the wizard, gasping as the field crushed her. "You've doomed them all, Saotome. Playing hero. Now they'll burn to death rather she possesses them or not! How does it feel, hero!"

Ranma gasped, struggling. She tried to focus her Ki, to break free, but the frightened screams distracted her, sapping the confidence she relied on. "How's it feel, knowing you failed."

A clink and the sound of chain being dragged away stopped his rant. Both Ranma and the wizard turned to find Ryoga tossing the broken chain aside as the girls ran away. "Need a hand, Ranma?" Ryoga asked mildly.

"Naw. I'm good." Ranma's ki flared, causing Ryoga to back up and breaking the field that held him apart. He charged the wizard, slamming him into the wall. The Crystal cracked again. "You're dead, anyway, Saotome. The Widow will possess you… GIRL."

Ranma smirked. "Naw. She likes powerful women."

"But you are one!" he gaped out.

Ranma produced the pink vial he stole from cologne, pouring some of the cursed water onto the wizard, turning him into a teenaged girl. "Whoa, really is the spring of drowned young girl." He noted.

"What?" The wizard, now a witch, asked, eyes widening at her soprano voice. "NO!"

Ranma released the new girl, kicking her across the room. He strode forward, pausing at the wizards own podium and revealing a thermos. "Nice magic trick, huh? Hidden weapons." The pigtailed girl said, as she changed herself to a he. "Sorry, no more for you."

"That's just cruel Ranma." Ryoga observed. "Nice touch."

The crystal exploded, and light flooded into the wizard. Ranma and Ryoga watched impassively as the man writhed on the floor. "Ryoga, go get the girls away from here."

"Why?"

"Just in case she bails the old wizard, I'd rather they weren't to close by." Ranma replied.

"What about you?"

"I'm ending this."

Ryoga nodded, and slowly backed out of the room, before turning and running.

The writhing stopped, and the witch stood up. Something, Ranma couldn't quite say what, had changed in her. "Oh… it feels so good, being free." She moaned, an almost sexual sound which caused Ranma to shudder.

It reminded him of some of Kodachi's crap.

The Fey girl turned, her eyes locking on Ranma, and her lips twitching out, licking them moist. She began slinking towards the Martial Artist. "So I have you to thank for my freedom."

"In a manner of speaking." Ranma replied guardedly. "Look, if you just go… I'm fine with it. The guy kind of earned his fate. We ain't got no beef with each other."

"No… but I owe you a reward!" The girl surged forward, faster than even Ranma could see, and latched onto him with a glomp that would do an amazon proud. Ranma groaned, his life force being pulled free. "Maybe I should make you my husband!"

"Sorry…" Ranma groaned, dropping to one knee. "This is no time for fiancée's." He wrenched one arm free and smacked the bowl of holy water from its flaming stand, the now steaming water spilling over both of them.

Svelte, female arms became old and wrinkled. Breasts disappeared and a beard returned. "No! What have you done?"

"Jusenkyo… And you aren't taking over any more bodies either, you bitch."

She, body regardless even Ranma knew it was a woman in there, grabbed the pigtailed man by his throat, lifting him off the ground with inhuman strength. "I can use this body long enough to finish you, then I'll find another! No man can stop me!"

"I… bet that hurts… huh…" Ranma gasped around the grip on her throat. "You look like… it hurts."

"Disgusting masculinity… why can't any of you accept you're just FOOD!"

Ranma's hands came up, the most basic technique to shatter a choke hold, just as effective for a Master as a student. "Have a good meal then!" he yelled, pulling the fey possessed man close, his hand going around the back of his head. "YANG POINT!"

The explosion was titanic, Ranma finding himself thrown through the wall and into the wider hallway next to the door. Gasping in pain he crawled towards the door, and watched.

The Fey possessed wizard was writing again, with the mystic light mingling with the Ki-Aura. She was trying to escape, Ranma could tell, but she couldn't. Her power, so geared towards the destruction of men was over whelmed by the raw masculinity of it. Ranma rose and stepped to where the fey could see him.

"It was a gamble, right? No way to know if it'd work." He said, gripping his ribs as the Widow fell to the ground. "But Cologne said we all have to have male and female parts… Humans are like that, she said."

"But you ain't human, and after I saw how much it hurt to be the guy… I knew I was right. Otherwise, why didn't you possess a guy to get them off your trail?"

"I'll… Kill you!" She snarled, before gasping and curling up into a ball.

"No… I'm real sorry… but I think you've been dead for a very long time." Ranma watched as the body stopped writhing, and then stopped breathing. The ki-storm stopped as did the mystic lights. "Now, maybe you can rest."

Ranma turned, and trudged out of the room, ignoring the burning roof as it caved in.

Epilogue:

Ranma, his ribs bandaged, watched the mess of girls in the Tendo backyard playing. Many of them still had the hesitant, frightened look whenever they made to much noise but Himiko, Shi, and weirdly Mr. Tendo was having wonderful luck getting them out of their shells.

"Who knew he'd be so good at this." He observed.

"Father raised three daughters, Ranma." Kasumi observed. "He does know a bit about them."

"I guess."

Cologne chuckled next to the boy. "It's been good for him. Who would have figured finding people more emotionally dented up than him would have done such good?"

"Especially once you drove Happosai off." Ranma muttered.

"Well, Happi was being a bit over protective."

"He wanted to take them all out to get training bras!"

"I didn't say what he was trying to protect." Cologne conceded, cackling. She didn't perceive Happosai as being as much of a threat as everyone else, but then she'd always been able to kick his ass nine times out of ten.

Stephanie, sitting at the table asked. "So what are we going to do with all of them?"

"Protective Services are trying to find out who their parents… or even their home nations… are." Kasumi replied. "Those we can find family for will go home. Those who can't…"

"Those who can't, I protect." Cologne replied. "A few other women and girls from the village are coming here. We'll set up a satellite village, for lack of a better term, until their ready to move on or go to their new home with us. And don't worry, Son-in-law… they know you're already taken."

"Thanks loads." Ranma lay back, frowning at the ceiling. "Do you think I did the right thing?"

"Shimaka had extended his age with dark magic, at the expense of the innocent." Cologne replied. "And the Widow… Amazons have myths about beings like her… possibly even the actual creature herself. Destroying them was more than justified."

"Still. I killed him… both of them."

"One was long past the point he should have died." The ancient amazon stated, ignoring the irony some would see. "And the Widow wasn't truly ever alive."

"You did what you had to do, Ranma." Kasumi said in support of this. "They made their choices, you were just… the wages of sin."

"I guess…"

"Just don't get moody like you did after Saffron." Cologne sighed. "We're warriors. Sometimes we'll have to fight things evil enough they have to be destroyed. Just be glad the girls were saved, and no more will be hurt that way."

"Yeah… but the way it looked."

"It's good you did. It's good you remembered." Cologne gestured at the girls, causing Ranma to watch them, laughing and running. "But you took a future that shouldn't have been and gave it to those who deserved it. Personally, I'd take the handful of nightmares and pint of guilt in exchange."

"Hey, Ranma… come play!" Himeko yelled out.

"Yeah 'old man'. Or are you to old!" Shi teased, scandalizing the other girls.

"Me too, Granny." Ranma replied, as he got up. "I'm coming, but your years too take me on!"

As the girls' dog piled Ranma, Kasumi giggled. "He'll make a good father." She observed.

"Bah, he already is one." Cologne replied. "Now… how to get him to do it the RIGHT way. Who's the pool showing in the lead?"

"Shampoo. She's more forward." Kasumi replied, retrieving the spare notebook Nabiki left her when she'd gone out. "But Ukyo's a close second. Feline grace or something like that."

"Put my money on Akane. She was always the dark horse, but she's SO territorial." Cologne laughed. "And won't a BABY just put Ranma into a twist!"

"Indeed." Kasumi replied, giggling.

AN: Not sure this is the end, but I wanted to give the story a sense of closure at this point. Finally, after so long, it's complete! Now to work on the next one… and finish it too!

Then, after I edit some things on the old fics… perhaps I shall return to this universe. Who knows.


End file.
